More Human Than Human
by Lady Quickshift
Summary: The Brave Police were given Super A.I. to learn from humans so they could relate to the people they protected, but what happens when their "teachers" need a few lessons of their own? Starts immediately after the episode "Masked Brave, Dumpson" and goes from there with a few twists. Contains spoilers and slash. Don't like? You're in the wrong place.
1. Chapter 1

More Human Than Human

"Talking"

'_thoughts'_

"_Recordings, talking on the phone or singing"_

"_Speaking another language besides Japanese"_

:Talking through the comm.s:

Disclaimer: I own nothing but my O.C.s, Starts after the events in "The Masked Brave, Dumpson" and goes from there with a few twists.

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><p>After Mil Amigo was loaded into the back of a squad car and taken away from the scene, the Brave Police gathered around Yuuta and Ayako.<p>

McCrane looked at the red headed woman. "Miss Ayako, what exactly were you doing here?"

Ayako shrugged. "Work. We heard there was a wrestling circuit here getting into some shady stuff and I asked if I could come here and get the scoop. As luck would have it you guys were on the same case,"

Dumpson crossed his arm-servos and leaned down. "And once again, you've gotten yourself in trouble,"

Ayako rubbed the back of her head and laughed nervously.

Deckard looked down at Yuuta. "Well, mission accomplished, Yuuta. Just need to grab your things and we can go,"

Ayako remembered something and looked at the two. "Alright if I come with? I left my stuff in the room when you let me use the shower,"

Dumpson transformed and open his door for her. "Get in, Ayako. Follow me, Deckard, I'll show you where to go,"

McCrane led the others in a different direction. "We'll wait at the edge of town so no one spots us,"

"Alright, see you there," Deckard followed Dumpson to the dwelling Yuuta and the other "robot pilots" had been staying.

Luckily, the locals were used to their own brand of weirdness no one gave the cop car or the dump truck it was following a second glance and they parked in the alleyway that ran along the adobe brick building.

When the humans came back out with their bags, Deckard opened his door for Yuuta to get in. "Come on, let's go home,"

Ayako climbed up into Dumpson's cab, without asking first as usual but Dumpson didn't mind; if he didn't want her to do that he could have locked her out.

Ever the reporter, Ayako started peppering everyone with questions as they drove. "How did you guys know we were in trouble? And how did you all get here? I mean, I know Shadowmaru, Drill Boy and J-Decker can fly but how did the rest of the Build Team get all the way to Mexico if they couldn't form Build Tiger to fly without Dumpson?"

Deckard chuckled. "I didn't come here as J-Decker, Commissioner sent us all here on a jet. Turns out the lost athlete that was found and linked to the robot wrestling ring wasn't the only one that went missing under those same circumstances. We figured you two were in deeper trouble than we originally thought and came to help,"

Dumpson smiled internally. "Good thing you did or we'd be in deep sh-"

Just then everyone's comm. links went off. Yuuta got out his badge and, seeing it was Commissioner Saejima, answered it. "What is it, Commissioner?"

:I have another mission for you, Brave Police.:

Deckard drove faster. "Roger, Commissioner. We're on our way to the plane now. We'll be back soon,"

:Actually, the mission involves you guys stopping somewhere on the way back. Think you can do that? :

McCrane's voice also came over the comm. link; the others were also listening to the call, apparently. :If I may, Commissioner, what exactly is this new mission?:

The Commissioner paused before answering. :Apparently, the U.S. government wants to discuss matters with us pertaining to the Brave Police and prefer that you be present. I'm saving you a trip by having the plane's pilot take you to a military research base in California, go there and I will explain more via video conference when you arrive.:

Deckard flashed his lights at the others when they passed them and everyone formed a line behind him since the roads were too narrow to drive side by side. "Roger that, Commissioner,"

:Commissioner out.: the call ended with a click.

Yuuta put his badge away and leaned back in his seat as he looked at Deckard's dash. "What do you think the U.S. government wants to talk to us about?"

"I don't know, Yuuta,"

Drill Boy flew lower above the others—he had been flying overhead in his jet mode since his drill tank mode was slower than the others' vehicles—and piped up. "Maybe they heard about us and want our autographs?"

McCrane kept his response level despite his urge to sigh exasperatedly at his younger brother's antics. "I highly doubt that,"

Power Joe lifted his shovel upward as though he were looking up through it. "Yeah, if they wanted us to sign something we could have just sent it to them. Why would we have to travel to the other side of the world for that?"

Yuuta tried to keep everyone from fighting. "Guys, come on, no fighting. The Commissioner said he would tell us more when we get there so how about we just enjoy the trip on the way there, okay?"

There was a unanimous "Ok, Boss!" as they turned onto the road that led to the small airport where the plane was waiting; and by small airport, it was a dirt run way with a control tower and a hanger where the planes that were there long-term were kept.

Shadowmaru deadpanned as everyone lined up to be loaded up into the plane's cargo bay. "Just don't sit too close to Power Joe, he got air sick on the way here. I think he's just like that with planes,"

The Kung Fu Detective let out an indignant squawk. "That's not true!"

Dumpson scanned at his brother and rolled closer to Shadowmaru and whispered. "A drum of oil says he loses it halfway there,"

Shadowmaru smiled internally and whispered back. "Really? I think it says he's going to lose it as soon as the plane takes off,"

"Deal,"

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_Half an hour later_

All of the Brave Police had been anchored down by cargo nets in the cargo hold in their vehicle modes so they wouldn't slide around during take-off while Yuuta and Ayako sat in their seats close to the front of the plane.

As soon as the plane stabilized enough that anything that wasn't bolted down wouldn't flip over, Power Joe transformed and pulled off his net and crawled to a corner, dry heaving.

Dumpson groaned when he heard gagging and the sound of something splashing. "Ah, come on, Power Joe. Couldn't you have held it a little longer?"

Shadowmaru laughed from where he sat in the corner in his wolf mode—he and Drill Boy were riding on the plane with the others to save their energy—and said. "Hey, _Dumpson_, pay up!" he said the dump truck's designation in a sing-song voice to further goad him.

Power Joe leaned out of his hiding spot, wiping his mouth. "You… you guys bet on whether or not I'd puke?"

Shadowmaru shook his helm and answered honestly. "No, we bet on _when_ you would puke,"

Deckard sensed that this could very well escalate into a fight—he did _not _like the way Power Joe was slowly reaching to the holster in his hip where he kept his nunchucks as he glared at the Wrestling and Ninja Detectives—and spoke up. "Guys, let's not fight while we're on a plane somewhere over... where are we anyway?"

Shadowmaru craned his neck to look out a window. "We just flew over the coastline. We're above the ocean now, on our way to California,"

Power Joe crawled under his cargo net—not like there was anything better to do—and transformed, previous angst forgotten for the moment. "I wonder if it's as cool as it is on T.V.,"

Drill Boy squealed excitedly. "I hope so! Hey, think the Commissioner would let us stay for a while and take a mini-vacation?"

McCrane sighed. "I doubt that, we are needed back in Nanamagari City and shouldn't be gone for too long,"

They all turned their attention to the front of the cargo bay when they heard the steel door leading up to the front of the plane open. Yuuta stepped out from behind the door and closed it behind him.

"Yuuta, what are you doing back here?" Deckard was happy to see the boy but he couldn't help but be curious.

Yuuta smiled as he walked further into the cargo bay. "Ayako fell asleep so I asked the pilot if I could come back here with you guys," the smile disappeared as the boy wrapped his arms around himself and shivered. "Brrr, it's cold back here. Aren't you guys cold?"

Shadowmaru's wolf mode smiled at Yuuta. "Sorry, Little Boss, it's always cold this high up and it never seems to occur to anyone that cargo holds might need heating,"

Power Joe made a shooing motion with his scoop shovel, cargo net swinging about him since it wasn't bolted down anymore. "We're fine, go back up front before you catch a virus or something,"

Yuuta hesitated and inched closer to Deckard. "Is it alright if I…"

Already knowing what the boy was going to ask, Deckard partially transformed so he had an arm-servo free to pull up the cargo net over himself so he could open his door enough for Yuuta to slip through. "Get in,"

Yuuta crawled under the net and into Deckard's front seat where the Police Detective turned up his heater as soon as the door closed. "Thanks Deckard,"

"You're welcome," Deckard let the net fall and transformed the rest of the way back into his alt. mode. "So, Yuuta, how was Domingo Republic?"

Yuuta grinned and immediately started recounting his entire adventure for his friend who listened intently, asking questions and giving the appropriate reactions at appropriate intervals.

Deckard could never explain how much he missed the boy when he was gone—he made the others swear to never tell Yuuta he buried himself in his work so he didn't have time to mope, because he so obviously _didn't_—but now that Yuuta was back he felt whole again.

The boy chatted until he started to nod off and Deckard gently tightened the seatbelt around him to give him an impromptu hug. "Go to sleep, Yuuta. I'll wake you when we get there,"

Yuuta curled up in the seat and pulled his shirt over his legs and closed his eyes; for some reason, being in Deckard's vehicle mode, it felt like he was already home.

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_Two hours later_

Drill Boy groaned "Are we there yet?"

McCrane sighed. "No,"

A few seconds later. "Are we there yet?"

"No,"

"Are we there yet?"

Dumpson answered this time. "No!"

Power Joe saw what his younger brother was getting at and grinned, joining in. "Are we there yet?"

Dumpson hissed. "Oh, don't _you_ start,"

Deckard whispered softly "Shh, don't wake him,"

Everyone remembered Yuuta was sleeping in Deckard's front seat and whispered apologies before going quiet.

Shadowmaru yawned and rest his chin on his paws. "Might as well follow our boss' lead, we've got about another four hours of flying ahead of us,"

Everyone groaned. "Four hours?"

McCrane spoke up; his patience with his brothers was obviously waning. "An excellent idea, Shadowmaru. All of you, take a nap,"

Dumpson grumbled. "We're not children, McCrane,"

Drill Boy contradicted his brother's comment by jokingly asking. "Can we have a story first?"

Power Joe turned his cab around to "look" at Drill Boy. "Once upon a time, a little Brave Police bot went on a plane ride with his big brothers and their friends. The little bot was _really _annoying so his big brother threw him out of the plane and everyone else lived happily ever after. The End,"

Drill Boy squeaked and shrunk away from everyone else while the others scolded the power shovel. "POWER JOE!"

Deckard scanned Yuuta to make sure he wasn't woken up—the boy stirred for a moment but went back to sleep—before speaking up. "I also agree with Shadowmaru's notion. We're all probably just tired from the mission. Let's take the opportunity to catch up on some recharge while we can,"

Everyone grumbled and powered down for recharge, after making sure their nets were secure in case they hit some turbulence while they were powered down.

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_Sometime later_

Deckard was roused from a light recharge by someone tapping on his window. He activated his scanners and saw it was Ayako. "Oh, hello Ayako,"

Ayako smiled and said "The pilot said we'll be landing soon. He asked me to come back here and make sure you all were ready to land. Oh, and he wants me and Yuuta in our seats when we do,"

Deckard checked his chronometer and found they had been dosing for just over three hours. "Oh, alright, thank you for telling me Ayako. Let me just wake him,"

Ayako smiled and went to help Dumpson wake up the others, she had obviously gone to him first before talking to Deckard.

Deckard raised his voice from where it was when he was trying to _avoid _waking Yuuta up as he tried to wake him gently. "Yuuta, time to wake up,"

Yuuta mumbled sleepily so Deckard rocked his seat back and forth to shake him. "Wakie wakie, Yuuta!

Yuuta jerked awake and looked around, he knew automatically he was in Deckard but he didn't recognize where they were. "Huh, what?"

Deckard chuckled. "Morning, sleepy head,"

Yuuta looked at the dash. "Deckard, where are we?"

"Still on the plane, we're going to be landing soon so the pilot wants you back in your seat," Deckard partially transformed his arm-servo to lift up the net so Yuuta could get out and helped the boy refasten said net before changing back.

Then Dumpson remembered something. "Everybody be careful driving out of here. Don't want to slip in Power Joe's… mess,"

Power Joe scoffed. "Cut it out, I didn't purge that much. And I got it all in a bin,"

McCrane hummed to himself. "I didn't see any bins in here when we boarded, except…" realization dawned on him. "The one we put those tacky costumes that Commissioner made us wear in?"

Power Joe snickered. "Yep,"

Quiet cheers and sighs of relief came from the Brave Police mechs; none of them liked those costumes, they looked ridiculous and the fabric kept getting caught in their joints and seams.

Once all the mechs were ready, Ayako and Yuuta went back to their seats and fastened their own seat belts.

Ayako looked out the window then at Yuuta. "Next stop, California,"

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Instead of landing at an airport like they had originally thought, the plane landed right on a military base.

A soldier jogged up to meet them. When he was close enough he asked. "_Where is…"_ he looked at a clip board he was holding. "… _Inspector Tomonaga?"_

Deckard whispered to Yuuta, who was riding with him. "Yuuta, he's asking for you,"

Yuuta gulped and unbuckled his seatbelt, wishing once again that the Commissioner had picked someone older for this sort of thing.

Deckard opened the door for him. "Do you remember your English lessons?"

Yuuta had been learning English in school as a second language and the Commissioner had gotten a tutor to teach him English prior to the Domingo Republic mission since there were quite a few people that spoke English there.

He wasn't fluent but since he didn't have a translator like the mechs did he had to work with what he had; which was, luckily, enough to get by.

"_Yes_, kind of," Yuuta climbed out of Deckard and tried to remember how to introduce himself as he took out his badge and showed it to the man. "_I am Yuuta Tomonaga,"_

The soldier looked him up and down and mumbled something in English, Yuuta didn't quite catch all of it but he recognized the word "kid"; he knew that one all too well from all the times Gunmax called him that.

The soldier spoke again. "_I am Sargent Matthews. If you will follow me I will show you to the Captain's office,"_

They followed the soldier to an office building in the middle of the compound. However, Deckard and the others couldn't go inside so Ayako was going to go with Yuuta but…

Sargent Matthews stopped Ayako. "_I'm sorry, ma'am, but I'm going to have to see your I.D.,"_

Ayako was confused and struggled slightly until Shadowmaru used his translator to ask what the problem was and said. "Calm down, Ayako. He just needs to see your I.D. first,"

Ayako huffed as she dug in her purse. "He didn't need to see Yuuta's," she showed the Sargent her passport, since it was the only identification she had on her that wasn't written in Japanese, but the man frowned. "_And what business do you have here?"_

By this time all of the mechs had activated their translators—all of them had them since they have had quite a few international cases—and Dumpson said. "_She's with us. Since we cannot enter the building she will accompany our young boss inside,"_

Sargent Matthews frowned. "_I'm sorry, but unless she is his translator or has actual business here other than being someone's babysitter I'm afraid I can't let her in just like that,"_

Dumpson snarled at the man who spoke of _his _Ayako or their boss like that, but Drill Boy—of all bots—held him back.

Yuuta held up his hands. "It's ok, guys, I'll be fine,"

McCrane looked at Yuuta. "Hold on, Boss," he switched to English and asked the Sargent. "_If I may, Sargent, would the Captain's office happen to have a window?"_

The Sargent looked up at him. "_Yeah, why?"_

"_Would it be alright if we opened the window so one of us can listen in and translate for Inspector Tomonaga? His English is still… how you say, iffy?" _

While McCrane let the Sargent mull over his offer, Deckard looked at the Combat Detective. "What are you doing, McCrane?"

McCrane muttered back. "Trying to get him to let us listen in on the meeting. I asked him if it were possible to leave a window open so one of us be a back-up translator and help Boss with terms he is not quite familiar with,"

Dumpson shrugged "So, who gets to go?"

Deckard nodded "I will,"

Shadowmaru shook his digit at everyone else. "Actually, Deckard, maybe McCrane should be to one to listen in. I imagine he knows more military terms with all the time he has been spending at the Defense Forces base,"

Power Joe snickered. "I don't think McCrane and Seia are talking _combat strategies _when they're together,"

McCrane blushed, the lower part of his optics turning red to cast a rosy glow over his faceplates, and he looked away. "What we talk about when we have our conversations is none of your business, Power Joe,

Sargent Matthews looked up at them. "_Alright fine, which one of you is going to sit at the window?"_

Deckard pointed at McCrane. "Shadowmaru has a point, this is a military base and McCrane has more experience with military personnel. McCrane, watch out for Yuuta,"

McCrane nodded and saluted the Sargent. "_I will, Sargent,"_

"_Alright, go around the side of the building, I'll let you know which window it is when I get it open,"_

McCrane walked around the side of the building like he was told while Yuuta followed the Sargent inside after looking up at the others. "I'll be back soon, guys. Behave yourselves,"

As soon as the door closed behind him, Yuuta wanted to run back outside—he was in way over his head here—but he gulped nervously and marched on; determined to not lose Sargent Matthews in a maze full of offices and strangers speaking a foreign language.

Sargent Matthews brought Yuuta to an office at the end of a hallway and open the door. "_Captain, Inspector Tomonaga from Nanmagari City, Japan here to see you,"_

A tall man with "salt-and-pepper" hair and tan skin with blue eyes looked up from the paper work he was filling out and stood. "_Ah, Inspector, welcome to California, I…"_

The Captain seemed to notice just how young Yuuta was and said. "_Forgive me if I stare, when they told me you were young I never…"_

Yuuta hesitated. "Umm…"

The Sargent remembered the window and went to open it. "_One moment sir," _He opened the window and leaned out it to look around for McCrane until he spotted him.

"_Hey, buddy, over here,"_ he waved McCrane over and the Combat Detective knelt down to salute the Captain.

"_Pardon me, Captain, I'm just here to help with translations so there are no misunderstandings,"_

The Captain took a few steps away from the window but covered his trepidation by acting like he was merely stepping back to get a better look at the bigger robot. "_Oh, of… of course. As I was saying I am Captain Wilde. Now then, let me just contact Commissioner Saejima on a video conference call and we can get started,"_

After a few minutes of messing around with the Captain's computer, Commissioner Saejima's face appeared on the screen and saluted. "_Captain,"_

Yuuta went around to the Captain's side of the desk to see the monitor and saw that there were English subtitles at the bottom of the screen translating what the Commissioner said into English.

Captain Wilde saluted back. "_Commissioner,"_

Commissioner Saejima lowered his hand and smiled at Yuuta. "_Hello, Yuuta. Did Captain Wilde tell you the surprise yet?"_

Yuuta was confused and suspicious as he looked at the Commissioner; last time he said that was when Deckard got J-Roader so he could combine into J-Decker, he thought Deckard was keeping it a secret to surprise him but the mech didn't know anything about it either… that didn't turn out well. "_No, we just got here and you didn't tell us anything on the way here,"_

Captain Wilde looked at the boy and then at the Commissioner. "_We were waiting until you were able to join the conversation, Commissioner,"_

Commisioner nodded "_Alright, whenever you are ready, Captain_,"

Captain Wilde looked at Yuuta. "_Alright, we're all busy so I'm just going to cut to the chase here. Long story short, I have no idea what you did to that 'Deckard' robot, kid, but if you could do it for the robots we have built here we would be much obliged,"_

Yuuta was about to say something and the Captain seemed to think he was going to ask what they got out of this and quickly added. "…_and in your debt,"_

Yuuta pointed to the window, indicating the Brave Police who were somewhere outside. "_Um, ok, I don't know if what I did with Deckard will work the same way with other robots but…"_

Then Yuuta realized what they were talking about. "_Wait, you mean you have robots like Deckard and the others __**here**__?"_

The Captain nodded. "_Yes, I will take you to them as soon as we are done here…__** if**__ you accept the offer,"_

Yuuta hesitated and looked at the screen with Commissioner Saejima's face on it for guidance.

The Commissioner could see the boy's trepidation and spoke up. "_Captain, would it be possible for the team to see the new robot's first? Not to insult your engineering teams but it would be better for them to know what they are getting into before they agree to anything_,"

The Captain considered a moment and nodded. "_Fair enough, I shall transfer your call to one of the computer's in the maintenance hangar so we can continue our conference,"_

Commissioner Saejima smiled. "_That won't be necessary, I trust Yuuta's opinion as well as his team's. They know more about Super A.I. and the potential of them than anyone. By your leave, Captain,"_

He saluted and the Captain returned the gesture before turning off his computer.

Yuuta stood there quietly but jumped the military man looked at him and smiled nervously as he looked him up and down, sizing the boy up.

After a moment of this, the Captain stood to his full height with his hands behind his back and walked out of the office ahead of Sargent Matthews. "_This way,"_

Yuuta trotted to catch up to the men and followed them outside where the others were waiting for him.

Deckard immediately went up to him like a puppy that had been waiting for its master to come outside. "Yuuta, what's going on?"

McCrane came around the side of the building. "Apparently, the technicians here have been trying to build mechs for an American branch of Brave Police,"

Yuuta smiled. "They're trying to make more robots like you guys but they can't figure out how to give them hearts so they want us to help them with that part,"

This got the Brave Police's attention and they started whispering among themselves.

"More robots?"

"Like us?"

"Here?"

Deckard looked down at Captain Wilde and Sargent Matthews. "_Can we…. See them?"_

Sargent Matthews nodded and Captain Wilde smiled and said. "_We were just on our way over there now. If you would follow us,"_

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><p><em><strong>A.N. This is my first "Brave Police J-Decker" story. What do you guys think?<strong>_

_**Comments, questions, suggestions and predictions welcome. Any flames will be dealt with accordingly.**_


	2. Chapter 2

More Human Than Human

"Talking"

'_thoughts'_

"_Recordings, talking on the phone or singing"_

"_Speaking another language besides Japanese"_

:Talking through the comm.s:

Disclaimer: I own nothing but my O.C.s, Starts after the events in "The Masked Brave, Dumpson" and goes from there with a few twists.

* * *

><p>The Brave Police followed the two soldiers to a large hanger at the edge of the base and waited at the closed bay doors while the human's went in through the smaller side door to let them in.<p>

While Sargent Matthews was yelling at someone to open the doors to let the mechs in, Yuuta caught sight of a very large mech supported by a maintenance cradle on the wall to the right.

The mech appeared to be able to turn into some kind of jet and had a black-and-gray color scheme with red on his wingtips as well as on his elbow and knee joints. He also wore a visor like Gunmax only it came down to a point over his nasal ridge rather than being a straight band across his optics. But the one feature about the mech that stood out the most for Yuuta was the sheer size of him.

Yuuta's eyes widened as he stared up at him. "Whoa…"

The others entered the hanger and stopped to gawk up at the tall mech, most of them only came up chest height on the mech and Drill Boy was optic level with the mech's mid-section.

"Whoa!"

"Holy…"

"He's… tall?"

Deckard looked down at the Captain Wilde. "_Impressive, although… didn't you say there were two?"_

The two soldiers looked at each other uncertainly and this aroused Shadowmaru's suspicion; not only were the Captain and the Sargent acting suspicious just then, like they weren't sure how much they could tell them, but the technicians scurrying around going about their work had paused when the question came up, like they were hoping the two officers wouldn't tell them _anything._

'_Hmm, perhaps now would be a good time for some recon.' _Shadowmaru started to wander off to do some poking around but didn't get far.

Deckard looked around and asked. "_Where is the other one?"_

"Found it!" They all looked to see Shadowmaru pointing to something on the other side of the jet mech. "Or rather… _her?"_

"_HER?"_ The others went to where the Ninja Detective was standing and saw another Brave police bot—they hadn't seen it right away because the other one had been blocking their view—only this one definitely appeared female.

She also appeared to be able to turn into some sort of emergency vehicle and had a light blue-and-tan color scheme.

Ayako looked at the femme. "Huh, she was hiding behind the big guy. Ah, she has kitty ears, how cute!"

The Yuuta and the mechs did a double take and concurred that the femme's audio finials did sort of look like kitty ears.

Power Joe looked the femme up and down and rumbled "_Hello-o_ Kitty,"

Shadowmaru cuffed the Kung Fu Detective across the helm. "Power Joe, show some respect!"

Power Joe apologized automatically as he rubbed his helm. "Sorry,"

No response. "Huh, that's rude,"

Nobody had the heart to tell Power Joe he had no room to talk as far as being rude went after his previous comment so McCrane suggested. "Maybe she doesn't understand our language. Try it in English,"

Power Joe tried "_Sorry… wait, can she even hear me?"_ he leaned in closer to look at the femme's optics.

They were dark but Yuuta could have sworn he saw them flicker when Shadowmaru got after Power Joe for hitting on her.

One of the technicians came up to them. "_I doubt it. BP201, like BP101, have been completely unresponsive to any stimuli aside from the basic commands we pre-programmed them with and even then they only respond if their pilots say them,"_

Deckard looked at the man, whose name tag read Dr. Kindle and identified him as Chief engineer, and tilted his helm curiously. "_Pilots?"_

Dr. Kindle nodded. "_Yes, originally we were going to assign the BP's to human pilots in the event that they encountered an issue that their A.I.s weren't equipped to handle. But then we found out about Super A.I.s, which is a scientific miracle in itself,"_

He nodded at Deckard and Yuuta. "_I hear we have you two to thank for that_,"

Both Deckard and Yuuta smiled sheepishly and rubbed the backs of their necks as Dr. Kindle continued. "_Anyhoo, your engineers sent us a copy of the personality coding that would help our BP's A.I.s evolve into Super A.I.s. As far as we can tell the actual installment was a success but we cannot seem to activate it in the new A.I.s.,"_

Captain Wilde stepped up. "_That's where you come in,"_

Yuuta looked at the man and then up at Deckard who was watching the other Brave police inspect the two new robots, then at them, then back at the Captain. "_So… they have minds of their own, you just want us to help them learn how to use them?"_

Dr. Kindle nodded._ "Precisely,"_

Deckard tore his optics away from the other robots and looked down at Dr. Kindle, Sargent Matthews and Captain Wilde. "_Did you want us to work with them here or is it alright if we take them back to Japan with us?"_

Captain Wilde looked at all of the Brave Police mechs and considered for a moment before sighing. "_At this time we don't have the facilities to house all of you so it would seem our only feasible option would be to either have them go back with you for the time being,"_

Yuuta smiled and clenched his fists excitedly. "Cool!"

The Captain cut in. "_Or have only a few of you stay while the rest of you return to Japan,"_

Dr. Kindle held up a finger. "_And we want regular progress reports if you do take them with you for the time being. Understood?"_

Captain Wilde looked at Yuuta, since Commissioner Saejima had left the final decision up to him. "_So, think you're up to the challenge?"_

Yuuta looked up at the others and then at the Captain. "_This is going to be a team effort, we'd better vote on it,"_

Deckard got the other's attention and said. "Alright guys, all in favor of helping the two American Brave Police get their 'hearts' in working order say 'aye',"

Everyone looked at each other before raising their servos. "AYE!"

Captain Wilde chuckled. "_I'll take that as a 'yes'?"_

Sargent Matthews nodded. "_So, you guys staying or are they going with you?"_

Deckard and Yuuta looked at each other and the former said "All in favor of bringing them back with us for that say 'aye',"

About half of them said "Aye" again and Deckard said "All in favor of some of us staying here to work with them, for work, not play…" he quickly added when Drill Boy and Power Joe were about to say something but they stopped so Deckard continued. "..say 'Aye',"

No one said anything and Yuuta smiled at Captain Wilde. "_We'll do it, if we can take them with us to work with them. We'll send them back when they are ready,"_

The Captain nodded "_Alright, if you would come with me, Inspector, we have some forms for you to sign,"_

Yuuta started to follow but then he heard Power Joe say. "Wait, how are we going to get the big guy home?"

Yuuta stopped and looked up at the Brave Police and saw they had a problem. "Uh oh,"

Sargent Matthews looked at him "_Something wrong?"_

Yuuta rubbed the back of his head "_Uh, the guys just pointed out that we came on a plane but there isn't enough room for everyone with the bigger robot on the plane,"_

"_He IS a plane__,"_

They all turned to see a young man with brown hair and blue eyes in military fatigues leaning against the wall opposite the maintenance cradles.

Sargent Matthews looked at the man and frowned. "_Private Baker, how long have you been standing there?"_

The soldier, Private Baker, realized his commanding officer had asked him a question and saluted. "_A while, sir. I heard you were shipping the big guy and the ambulance lady out so I came to say 'goodbye' but I didn't want to interrupt the inspection,"_

Dr. Kindle rolled his eyes and mumbled to Yuuta, and Deckard since the mech leaned down to listen too. "_Private Baker was supposed to be BP101's pilot, he's gotten kind of… attached to it and the other one,"_

Yuuta looked up at the Private apologetically. "_I'm sorry, we don't mean to take your friend away, Private Baker, we just…"_

Private Baker smiled and held up his hand "_Don't worry, just… take care of them, okay?"_

Deckard nodded and promised. "_We will," _He looked at the unnamed mech, BP101, and said. "_Now we just need to figure out how to get them back to Japan. Unfortunately your bigger friend won't fit in the plane we came in and I don't see how he'll be able to fly alongside without a pilot if his A.I. hasn't been activated yet,"_

Private Baker rubbed his chin for a moment before smiling. "_I might be able to help you with that,"_

The others looked at him and Power Joe crossed his arm-servos. "_And how do you plan on doing that?"_

Private Baker smiled and held up his hands in a shrug that reminded the Brave Police so much of Gunmax it was almost like they were talking to the Motorcycle Detective himself. "_Well, I __**am**__ 101's pilot and it just so happens I'm about to go off base for personal leave. If you guys want I can fly him to Japan for you and take the next flight back here to California,"_

Yuuta smiled up at the soldier "_You'd do that?"_

Sargent Matthews scowled. "_I thought you were taking that time off to see your family,"_

Private Baker scowled back. "_For two weeks, I don't think it will take that long,"_

McCrane frowned. "_Still, we shouldn't keep you from your family, Private,"_

Private Baker smiled. "_It's fine, I'll be there and back before anyone has a chance to miss me,"_

Captain Wilde considered for a moment before nodding. "_In that case, go get your gear and suit up, Private,"_

Private Baker saluted. "_Sir, yes sir!" _he turned on his heel and marched to what could only be assumed was the barracks while Yuuta followed Captain Wilde back to the office building, leaving the Brave Police in the hanger.

Drill Boy smiled "Wow, that was nice of that guy to help us out like this," Dr. Kindle and Sargent Matthews looked up at him and he felt awkward for speaking Japanese when they couldn't understand it and repeated himself. "_Uh, I mean, that was nice of him to help us out like this,"_

Sargent Matthews glowered at the door. "_Something just isn't right about the kid. He's always hanging around like he's waiting for the robot to wake up and he keeps talking to it and pretending it answers,"_

Deckard was about to point out that that was how he had gained sentience, when Yuuta secretly visited him, but Power Joe looked up at BP101 with his fists on his hips. "_So, is the 'nice' Private going to fly this guy in robot mode or can he transform?"_

Dr. Kindle looked up at him. "_Oh, he can transform, we just need to manually initiate the transformation sequence,"_

Shadowmaru looked down at him. "_You're going to what now?"_

"_I said we…"_

The Ninja Detective waved him off. "_I know what you said. I just… wouldn't wish that on anyone,"_

Dumpson looked at him; he had been staying out of the conversation so far in favor of translating for Ayako. "Why?"

Shadowmaru looked up at the American BP's, they were so innocent from having not yet experienced the cruelties of the world they were about to be unleashed upon, and crossed his arm-servos. "It hurts when it's forced like that. Trust me, I know,"

He turned and walked out of the hangar, not wanting anything to do with what was about to happen to the tall jet robot.

Sargent Matthews watched him go but shrugged and walked away. Dr. Kindle looked up at the others. "_What's his problem?"_

Deckard sighed and explained. "_He says it hurts when the transformation is forced like what you say you are going to do,"_

The engineer looked up at him. "_Oh? Well, I don't think their sensors would register any pain if their A.I.s are inactive,"_

He saw the look on the Brave Police's faceplates when he said they didn't feel and added. _"But if you do not feel comfortable seeing your fellow robots like that we can try to find another way,"_

Deckard smiled, grateful for the man's understanding; not many showed it towards them. "_Thank you,"_

The Build Team hung around while they waited for Yuuta and Private Baker to come back and for the new Braves to be prepared for transport.

Deckard, however, went in search of their wayward ninja. He found him sitting on the ground at the edge of a shallow canal that appeared to have been dug as part of an obstacle course for the soldiers on base to train on.

He sat down next to Shadowmaru, not too close but close enough for him to know he was there.

"Master Deckard," Shadowmaru greeted him with a flat tone and picked up a rock, turning it around in his servo.

Deckard looked at the canal and was quiet for a moment before asking. "Shadowmaru, back there when you said 'Trust me, I know', what did you mean by that?"

Shadowmaru sighed and tossed the rock into the water. "Back when I was first created, I had trouble figuring out all of the different alt. modes they gave me so…" he picked up another rock. "They hooked me up to a machine that forced the transformation until I figured out how to do it on my own without getting them mixed up,"

He skipped the rock across the surface of the water and it skid across the shore on the other side to hit a fence post with a _thunk._

Deckard watched it go before looking at Shadowmaru. "I'm sorry,"

Shadowmaru snorted and smiled wryly. "Don't be, you do _not _want to see what a half-wolf half-car looks like,"

Deckard chuckled at the ninja's attempt at dry humor and stood up. "Come on, let's get back to the others,"

He offered a servo to help Shadowmaru up but he gracefully unfolded from his seated position to stand up without any help.

When they got back to the hanger where the others were they found Dumpson and Power Joe were sitting cross legged on the ground having an arm-wrestling match with their elbows propped up on their knees, Ayako was cheering for the red mech and McCrane was holding Drill Boy's soccer ball just out of his younger brother's reach.

"For the last time, Drill Boy, if you're so bored that you have to play soccer right this instant you can go play outside where you're less likely to break something important,"

Drill Boy lunged for the ball but missed. "Give it back!" he whined.

Dumpson risked glancing out the corner of his optics. "Don't do it, McCrane, he'll just kick it at the wall if you do,"

Power Joe grinned and increased the pressure on his servo. "You should never get distracted in the middle of an arm wrestling match, Dumpson,"

Dumpson smiled at him. "Oh, are we starting now?" he pressed even harder and Power Joe's servo started to go the other direction.

Deckard sighed and looked at the humans who were staring at the mechs. "_Sorry, they've been cooped up in a plane for half a day and have too much energy to sit still for long,"_

Shadowmaru put a servo on his shoulder and pointed at Drill Boy and McCrane. "You deal with that situation, I'll deal with that one," he pointed over to the Power Joe-Dumpson arm-wrestling match.

Deckard considered his options and nodded. "Deal," he went over and took the ball from McCrane and put a servo on Drill Boy's shoulder. "Come on, Drill Boy, let's go outside for a while," He pulled Drill Boy towards the doors and outside.

Meanwhile, Shadowmaru crossed his arm-servos and waited to see if either mech would notice he was there and stop.

Instead of stopping, Power Joe resorted to using his other servo to pull Dumpson's back towards his side of the arm-wrestling playing field, inciting protests from the Wrestler Detective. "Hey, no fair, that's cheating!

Seeing both mechs were distracted, Shadowmaru cracked his knuckles and grabbed them both by the helms and vibrated his servos, sending violent tremors into their helms that forced them to stop and try to pry the servos off.

"Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow…"

"Kno-o-ck… i-it … o-o-ff!"

Shadowmaru smiled and released them, his servos still vibrating for a moment before going still again. "Are you two going to behave now?"

Ayako looked at the two mechs holding their helms and looked up at Shadowmaru. "What did you do to them?"

Shadowmaru's smile went away and he looked at her. "A trick I learned from Kagero. We used to do that to each other whenever one of us was doing something we shouldn't and neither of us wanted to get in trouble for fighting outside of sparring sessions,"

Ayako had heard about the elder ninja brother from Dumpson and felt pity for Shadowmaru. She tried to lighten the mood by smiling and asking "How does it work?"

Shadowmaru saw that Power Joe was getting up and reaching for his nunchucks to clock the ninja with them so he grabbed the Kung Fu Detective by the helm. "I just grab them by the helm and vibrate my servos really hard…" he vibrated his servos again and Power Joe's whole frame shook.

"…and it works like a power-noogie that goes right down into their processors,"

Ayako smiled. "Neat, I'll have to try that when my co-workers bring their kids to work and they misbehave,"

Shadowmaru didn't bother telling her it wouldn't work with humans the same way it worked with mechs and released Power Joe and let him fall to his knees, rubbing his helm.

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Yuuta came out of the office building with Sargent Matthews to see Drill Boy playing soccer with a few of the off-duty soldiers that were on base.

Or rather, that's what they were trying to do; the soccer ball was too big for the human players so they ended up just pushing it one way or another or jumping on it to stop it when Drill Boy gently kicked it for them, reminding Yuuta of a litter of kittens playing with a ball of yarn.

Yuuta giggled at the sight and went over to where Deckard was leaning against the hanger that the others were in while Sargent Matthews bellowed at the soldiers that they had better not be goofing off while on duty, all of them shouted back that they weren't before resuming their game.

Yuuta leaned against the side of the hanger, mimicking Deckard's stance as he looked up at him. "How come you guys get to have fun while we're here and I don't?"

Deckard smiled at the boy. "Ok, next time I'll sign paperwork while you keep the others out of trouble when they start rough housing,"

Yuuta smiled back. "Ok,"

They looked up to watch the soccer game and saw Private Baker walking back to the hangar, now wearing a flight suit with a bag on his shoulder. He gave them a two fingered salute when he saw them. "_Hey, guys,"_

Deckard saluted back. "_Hello again, Private Baker,"_

Private Baker waved Deckard off with a smile. "_Please, my friends call me Joey. I feel like an old army dude when people call me 'Private Baker' outside of formal situations or war zones,"_

Yuuta smiled "_Ok Joey. Are you sure your family will be alright with you flying halfway across the world and back again when you're supposed to be visiting them?"_

Private Baker—or Joey, rather—looked away. "_Actually, my wife thinks I won't be back until the day after tomorrow and she's the only one that knows I'm coming home at all. I was going to surprise everybody but at least I'll get to see them when I do get back,"_

He awkwardly adjusted the strap on his bag that was slung over his shoulder. "_Besides, it feels weird letting my partner go without saying goodbye,"_

Deckard looked down at Yuuta, remembering when he barely had time to say a quick goodbye to Yuuta when he was being reformatted. Luckily, that goodbye was only temporary. "_I know the feeling,"_

Just then Shadowmaru came out and told them. "Everything's almost ready. I'm going to tell our pilot to start getting ready to leave,"

He walked away and Yuuta, Joey and Deckard went inside while Shadowmaru clocked Drill Boy on the helm as he ran by, like he did when the orange mech was possessed by the evil spirit Inti, and said. "Cut it out, we're leaving as soon as everyone else is on the plane,"

"Oh, okay," Drill Boy slumped and begrudgingly went to retrieve his ball, not wanting to end the game just yet. "_Sorry guys, gotta go,"_

The soldiers said it was fine, thanked him for the game and waved as they dispersed to go about their business.

Drill Boy put his soccer ball back in his chest and went to go find his brothers.

They all gathered in the hanger to make sure BP201 was ready for transport—she was going to be strapped down to a metal cart, like the one Deckard was on when he was being transported in a trailer, and loaded onto the plane like a shipment of cargo—and BP101 was ready for take-off.

BP201 was loaded onto the plane without a hitch, now all that was left was to get BP101 transformed and in the air.

Deckard looked down at the technicians at the mech's peds. "_Are you still going to force the transformation or is there another way?"_

Yuuta looked up at him. "Why? What happens if they force him to transform?"

Deckard looked down at Yuuta sadly. "According to Shadowmaru it hurts when it's forced,"

Yuuta looked up at Shadowmaru, who was leaning against the entryway with his arm-servos crossed, for clarification; concern etched on the boy's features.

Shadowmaru nodded. "It feels kind of like when a human dislocates their shoulder and pops it back into place over and over again," he put a servo on his shoulder and rolled his shoulder like he was pretending to do what he just described.

Yuuta held up his fists and looked at the technicians pleadingly. "_NO! Don't hurt him!"_

Joey put a hand on the boy's shoulder. "_Whoa, hold on there, kiddo. Who's hurting who?"_

Yuuta told him what Shadowmaru and Deckard just told him and Joey frowned and looked at Dr. Kindle. "_Did you know about this?"_

Dr. Kindle spluttered and said. "_No, not until they told us a few moments ago but unless you have a better idea ,what choice do we have?"_

Joey looked up at the mech and then at the technicians working on him. "_Boot him up,"_

The technicians looked at him and one of them said. "_Excuse me?"_

Joey threw his bag over his other shoulder so that the strap was across his chest and climbed up the scaffolding. "_You heard me, boot his ass up,"_

Another technician scoffed as the Private weaved his way past the technicians on the scaffolding to get to BP101's cockpit. "_And just what do you plan on doing, Private?"_

Joey just pulled the release lever on the canopy, muttering "_Come on, dude, Open says me," _when it didn't open right away. When it finally did open he climbed in and the technicians rolled their eyes but humored him, powering up BP101's systems.

They all heard a low hum and a hiss of hydraulics as BP101 powered up and his helm snapped up to look straight ahead when his optics came online behind his visor.

Joey smiled at the technicians before closing the canopy. "_Much obliged,"_

Everyone waited for a moment before, to everyone's surprise, BP101 took a slow, shaky step forward.

When he took another one he had to catch himself on the side of the cradle and they heard Joey's voice through the mech's built in P.A. system. "_Sorry, I'm still a little shaky with the manual controls for when he's in robot mode,"_

They all realized the soldier was controlling the mech manually and Deckard stepped forward to help support the mech. "_Don't worry, I had trouble at first too,"_

"_You won't need to worry about manual controls once his A.I. evolves anyway," _McCrane went to the mech's other side to help and between the three of them BP101 was able to hobble out of the maintenance cradle enough so he could transform and be taxied out like a regular plane.

When it came time to trigger the transformation sequence Deckard could hear Joey say "_Sorry about this, buddy," _right before he pulled the appropriate levers that made the robot fold down into a military stealth fighter jet.

Dumpson saw they were bringing an aircraft tug in to drag BP101 outside and waved everyone out. "Let's wait outside, give these guys some room to drag him out,"

Everyone saw that he had a point, they would be in the way if they stood around in the hanger and went outside and found Shadowmaru waiting for them.

Shadowmaru jerked his thumb towards the open hatch leading into the cargo hold on the plane they had came in. "You guys better get on the plane, the pilot plans on taking off soon,"

Power Joe looked at him. "Wait, you said 'you guys'. Aren't you coming with us?"

Shadowmaru smirked "I'll be flying alongside in my jet mode to make sure the new guy doesn't get lost and so we're not all crammed in the cargo hold,"

"Oh, good point,"

Everyone saluted the soldiers gathered on the tarmac, who saluted back, and waved goodbye as they got onto the plane and into their previous seating arrangements; minus the fact that BP201 rode in Shadowmaru's spot on the plane.

The Ninja Detective himself watched the plane take off while he waited for Joey to take off in BP101 once the runway was clear, since he did the preflight checks while the fighter jet was taxied outside.

Once both planes were safely in the air, Shadowmaru got a running start and jumped up to transform into his jet mode in mid-air and flew after them.

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Captain Wilde looked up from his paper work when Sargent Matthews entered his office. "_Did they leave yet?"_

Sargent Matthews nodded. "_Yep, our BPs are on their way to Japan for their 'further training',"_

Captain Wilde nodded and propped his elbows on the desk top to rest his head on his folded hands. "_I almost feel sorry for the Tomonaga kid,"_

Sargent Matthews snorted. "_That Commissioner Saji-whatever put a little kid in charge of the most powerful weapons the world has seen and lets him run around playing superhero with them,"_

Captain Wilde looked at the Sargent "_That 'little kid' has seen more combat in a few months than most of our cadets will in a year and was able to __**make**__ those robots 'the most powerful weapons the world has ever seen'. You saw what the specs on that Deckard robot were originally and what they were after the kid got to him,"_

Sargent Matthews narrowed his eyes and pointed to the window. "_And you saw how those robots acted around the kid when they were here. If our BPs imprint on the boy like that we're going to have a problem,"_

Captain Wilde nodded and held up a hand. "_I know, but what's done is done, now all we can do is wait for their next progress report until our assets are ready to be returned to us,"_

Sargent Matthews let his arms fall limp at his sides as he slumped forward with a huff. "_And if they don't return them to us?"_

Captain Wilde smiled. "_They will,"_

The Sargent straightened up slightly. "_What makes you so sure?"_

The Captain took out a manila folder. "_Remember those forms I had the young Inspector sign?"_

"_Yeah, and?"_

Captain Wilde handed him the file. "_Page two, paragraph nine,"_

Sargent Matthews turned to the second page and read the paragraph he was told to. When he did his eyes widened. "_Oh, I see. Clever, sir,"_ he handed the file back.

Captain Wilde took the file and got up to put it in the filing cabinet behind him. "_You're dismissed,"_

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><p><em><strong>A.N.: Quick shout out to the people that reviewed andor added; CyberAngelAlexis, RedOpticsDA, LunarNightDreamer**_


	3. Chapter 3

More Human Than Human

"Talking"

'_thoughts'_

"_Recordings, talking on the phone or singing"_

"_Speaking another language besides Japanese"_

:Talking through the comm.s:

Rated T for language, suggestive material and anything else I might have missed.

Disclaimer: I own nothing but my O.C.s, Starts after the events in "The Masked Brave, Dumpson" and goes from there with a few twists.

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><p>During the ten hour flight back to Japan—<em>none <em>of them werethrilled about being stuck on a plane for that long, even if it was the homestretch—Yuuta looked over his copy of the forms they had him sign in California.

Ayako tried reading over his shoulder. "What'cha got there, Yuuta?"

Yuuta looked up at her. "A copy of the papers they gave me when they let us take the other two robots home with us. I thought I'd look them over since we have a while,"

Ayako stretched with a sigh. "Shouldn't you have read that before you signed them?" she smiled as she looked at him through the corner of one eye and shut the other one in a wink. "For all you know you could have been signing your soul over to Satan,"

Yuuta looked nervous at the last part and then looked a fronted. "I did too read them before I signed them!" he held up the file he was reading. "This is the one they wanted me to bring back for Mr. Toudou and the Commissioner. It's got stuff about the two robots in it,"

He returned his attention to the papers again with a huff and Ayako lowered her arms and looked at him curiously. "Oh, what does it say?"

Yuuta hummed and skimmed the papers for an example. "Says here that the girl one turns into a Search and Rescue ambulance and the other one turns into an F-22 stealth fighter jet,"

"Oh, that's cool. What else does it say?"

Yuuta frowned. "A lot of it is mechanic stuff that Mr. Toudou would know more about. I'll have to ask him when we get back,"

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_Meanwhile in the cargo hold_

The Brave Police sat in an awkward silence, the reason for that was no real secret to any of them. It was also no secret that they were all staring at said reason through their scanners.

"Should we… I dunno, introduce ourselves or something?" Dumpson suggested awkwardly and everyone made noises of agreement but no one knew where to start; the awkward silence was grating but they didn't even know if the femme could hear them and weren't really sure what to say if she could.

Drill Boy was the one to take the plunge as he transformed so that he was sitting cross-legged with the cargo net draped over him and waved. "Hi, I'm Drill Boy, what's your name?"

No response.

"Try it in English, she was made in America, after all," McCrane suggested.

Drill Boy did so but still got nothing.

"Maybe she doesn't have a name yet," Deckard offered when Drill Boy looked crestfallen. "You guys didn't all have names right away when you were created,"

Sometime later, Yuuta came back into the cargo hold with the others holding a manila folder under his arm.

Deckard flashed his lights at him in greeting. "Hey, Yuuta, what's that?"

Yuuta sat on the floor next to Deckard and opened the file. "Something Captain Wilde wanted me to take back to Mr. Toudou,"

Drill Boy looked over at him, still in robot mode under his net. "If it's for the Chief, why are you reading it?"

Power Joe gasped dramatically and waved his scoop shovel at Yuuta like he was shaking a finger at him. "Naughty Boss, reading other people's mail is a capital offense. Police officers shouldn't break laws,"

Yuuta pouted at him. "It's information on the new robots so Mr. Toudou and his crew know how to fix them if they get hurt," he looked at the file in his hands. "If we're going to be working with them we need to know more about them and we can't just ask them yet,"

After several minutes of looking through the files for something—anything—that might help them unlock the American Braves' Super A.I.s, Yuuta found nothing except how to boot up their systems and how to control them manually; basically how to wake them up to be used as puppets but not to make them sentient.

Yuuta finally closed the file and let it fall to the floor as he threw up his arms and fell back against Deckard's side. "This is hopeless!"

Dumpson shifted his scanners to "look" at the boy and turned his front tires towards him to show he had done so. "Come on, Boss, don't give up now,"

Yuuta just groaned like he was being forced to wake up early to go to school for a test he didn't study for.

Deckard transformed so that he was crouched under his cargo net and held out a servo to catch Yuuta when the action made the boy fall back. "Yuuta, look at me,"

Yuuta did as asked so Deckard said. "Remember when we first met?"

Yuuta nodded and smiled. "Yeah, at first I was scared but then I thought you were really cool," he looked around the cargo hold. "All of you guys are really cool,"

Yuuta's badge beeped and then they heard Shadowmaru's voice. :Aww, you're going to make us blush, Little Boss.:

Yuuta jumped and took out his badge. "Shadowmaru, how long have you been listening in?"

:Since about ten minutes after we lifted off. I got bored and felt left out.:

Yuuta and Deckard exchanged a glance and rolled their eyes—or rather, Deckard shifted the light in his optics to mimic an eye roll—and the police mech continued. "My point is, you saw me and figured I needed a friend, being all alone in that warehouse basement like I was. That is how I got my heart,"

Deckard lifted Yuuta to a seated position. "Now look at her," he nodded towards the femme. "Doesn't she look like she could use a friend right about now?"

Yuuta looked at the femme and thought for a moment before picking up the folder he had dropped and looking through it. He looked at the femme determinedly and checked the file one last time and tucked it under his arm before going over to the femme and climbing up onto the cart she was on.

"Boss, what are you doing?"

Yuuta didn't look up when he answered McCrane's question. "I'm going to start her up and try to get her talking like I did with Deckard,"

Power Joe scoffed. "We've been _trying_ to talk to her. How do we even know she understands us?"

Yuuta held up the file for him to see a page that showed information on the femme. "It says in the file that they downloaded a few different languages into her databanks and gave her a translator for the ones they didn't. She should be able to understand us just fine…" he set the folder down on the femme's chest plate. "If I can just start her up,"

Yuuta read the directions. "Says here she should be able to start up like a car even if she's in robot mode but…" he realized the instructions said that to get to her ignition system to start her he would have to open her chest plates.

Yuuta blushed at the thought and stuttered. "Uh, m-maybe not,"

Deckard transformed and crawled out from under his cargo net to crouch next to the femme and Yuuta. "What's wrong, Yuuta?"

Yuuta looked up at him and stuttered. "Wh-when she's a robot her ig-ignition goes into her…" he tried to get the words out but somehow couldn't so he waved his hands in front of him and mouthed the word "chest", hoping the others caught the drift.

Luckily they did; Dumpson grumbled awkwardly, Drill Boy—poor innocent and naïve Drill Boy—didn't see what was wrong and asked, McCrane simply said "Tell you later" but was otherwise quiet.

Deckard blushed and reset his vocalizer, which sounded like a human clearing their throat, before saying nervously. "Well, um, perhaps we should wait for Chief Toudou to power her up rather than starting her manually then,"

Power Joe shifted on his treads impatiently. "I say we just man up and get it over with,"

Deckard looked at him with a condescending look. "Power Joe!"

Shadowmaru's voice came through the comm.s again. :And they say _I'm _an animal.:

Yuuta climbed off of the femme and straightened his clothes after they had been messed up when he slid down. "We're waiting until we get back and that's it. Guys aren't supposed to touch girls' chests, it's wrong!"

Drill Boy looked at him and tilted his helm curiously. "Can girls touch other girls' chests?"

"Drill Boy!"

Dumpson cut in. "No wait, I think he's onto something. Boss, go get Ayako, ask if she can help,"

Yuuta nodded and ran up to the front of the plane. He came back a few minutes later with Ayako in tow.

The red headed woman seemed confused but was humoring the boy. "Okay, okay, calm down Yuuta. What did you guys need my help with?"

Deckard quickly explained the situation and their options on how to deal with it and Ayako smiled. "Okay, let me see the directions,"

Yuuta handed Ayako the file and she tucked it under her arm to crawl up onto the femme's abdomen.

Drill Boy scratched his helm. "I still don't see why we're not supposed to touch girls' chests. Do they hurt when people touch them?"

Ayako smiled at the mech's innocence as she opened the file and flipped through it to find what she was looking for. "Only if you squeeze really hard. You're not supposed to touch girls there without permission because not only is it rude but it counts as sexual assault,"

Naivety completely unfazed, Drill Boy nodded. "Oh, okay,"

Ayako started feeling for the hidden latches to open the femme's chest plates and Deckard covered Yuuta's eyes as he looked back at the others. "Guys, turn off your scanners for a moment.

"Already did," McCrane answered flatly.

"Okay" Power Joe did the same.

Dumpson transformed and covered Drill Boy's optics, leaving his own dark and offline. "Close her up as soon as you're done, Ayako,"

"Okay," Ayako finally got the femme's chest plates open and found the steering column for her alt. mode and then her ignition. "Found it. Let's see if she'll start for us," she turned the key and after a few tries the engine turned over and the femme's systems powered up.

Ayako glanced over her shoulder at the others as she closed the femme's chest plates. "Hey, guys, she's waking up,"

"Cover her up, we want to see,"

"Already did," they all looked and saw Ayako sitting on the femme's chest plates with her arms crossed smugly over her own chest. "I don't see why you guys are freaking out, there's nothing under there but car parts,"

They all looked embarrassed and Deckard said. "Well, it's the thought that counts right?"

Yuuta saw that the femme was waking up and went to climb back up so she could see him when she turned her optics on.

Deckard helped him up and was at the ready in case the femme moved suddenly and he would have to catch the humans. Everyone else crawled out from under their nets and moved to where they could see and waited.

The femme's optics lit up suddenly and everyone gasped from surprise; while Deckard's optics were orange and Gunmax hid his behind a visor, all of the Brave police had green optics but the femme's were the color of a cloudless sky on a summer day.

"Blue optics?"

"That's new,"

They all noticed said optics were staring straight up at the ceiling so Yuuta climbed up so that he was in the femme's field of vision and smiled. "Hi, I'm Yuuta, Yuuta Tomonaga. I'm with the Brave Police,"

At first the femme didn't move but Yuuta felt like he was being watched and after a few moments her audio finials flicked towards him, like she was trying to listen more closely. "Whoa, I think her ears just moved,"

The others crawled forward for a closer look but the shift in weight caused the plane to tilt slightly. Yuuta lost his balance and cried out as he tipped to the side.

"Yuuta!" Deckard lunged forward to catch him but another blue servo beat him to it.

Yuuta blinked his eyes and looked around, wondering what just happened.

He saw McCrane pushing the rest of the Build Team back and trying to get them to spread out so the plane wouldn't tip anymore and then he saw Deckard reaching for him. "Yuuta, are you alright?"

Yuuta nodded. "Yeah, I think so," then he realized that Deckard wasn't the one that caught him. He looked around and saw that he was cradled in the femme's servo and smiled triumphantly. "Hey, she moved!"

Everyone looked to see if the femme was awake now but she was just lying there with her optics fixated on the ceiling and her servo held up stiffly.

McCrane frowned. "I think it was just a reflex, she doesn't even seem to realize she moved her own servo,"

Yuuta looked up at him. "But she _moved, w_ithout anyone telling her to! That's got to count for something, doesn't it?"

Deckard smiled down at the boy. "Yeah, it does, doesn't it?"

They could hear Shadowmaru laughing through the comm.s :Well, what do you know? Not even back in Japan yet and the Little Boss is already making progress with the newbies.:

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Unbeknownst to the Brave Police, Private Joey Baker could hear every word from the cockpit of the jet-mech he was piloting. He looked at the control board almost forlornly.

"_Progress, right…"_

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Yuuta climbed back up onto the femme's shoulder and leaned down so he could look her in the optics. "Are you awake now?"

The femme just stared up at the ceiling for a moment before her optics dimmed and eventually shut off, her servo falling at her side again.

Yuuta promptly freaked out, looking around himself like he might have sat on something important. "What did I do? Why did she shut off like that?"

Deckard scanned the femme and put a servo on Yuuta's shoulder to calm the boy. "Yuuta, calm down. She just powered down to recharge because her energy was low,"

Yuuta looked up at Deckard, still unsure, so Power Joe added. "She's just taking a nap,"

Shadowmaru cut in in a dry tone. :She probably didn't have that much energy to begin with. They might have fueled up the mech so he could fly back but they probably wouldn't have done the same for her.:

Yuuta frowned at that and put a hand on the femme's cheek strut, smiling down at her gently. "Don't worry, we'll take good care of you,"

Yuuta grabbed the papers and put them back into their file before he and Ayako climbed down.

Ayako stretched and waved to everyone as she went back to the front of the plane. "I'll go have a quick nap myself. The Dramamine is starting to kick in,"

"Dramamine, what's that?"

Deckard looked at McCrane. "Some kind of medicine that humans take… I'm not sure what for though,"

"_Medicine?!" _Dumpson immediately started looking over Ayako worriedly. "Are you sick, Ayako? Why didn't you say anything?"

Ayako laughed at the big tough mech that was currently "mother henning" her. "Dumpson, I'm fine. Dramamine is used for motion sickness, I took some earlier so I wouldn't get sick on the plane but now it's making me sleepy,"

Power Joe perked up. "There's medicine for that? More importantly, you didn't _share?_" he narrowed his optics at her. "You suck,"

He went back under his cargo net and, after fastening it back down, transformed to sulk in his alt. mode.

Ayako stared at him and leaned closer to Dumpson to ask out of the corner of her mouth. "What's his problem?"

Yuuta, who was standing between the two of them, stretched up to whisper in her ear. "Turns out Power Joe gets sick on planes. Shadowmaru said he puked on the way to Domingo Republic,"

The Ninja Detective himself piped up :And on the way to California too. You just missed it. Speaking of which, you still owe me a drum of oil, Dumpson.: he added the last part smugly.

Dumpson growled and brought a digit to the side of his helm to speak into his comm. :I'll give it to you _after_ we get back.:

McCrane glanced at Power Joe and leaned down to whisper to Yuuta. "He almost purged again when we left the military base but he was able to keep it down that time," he started to straighten up but then he leaned back down to add. "Barely,"

Yuuta looked concerned and went over to Power Joe. "Power Joe?" the power shovel was silent so Yuuta reached through the net to grab the scoop of his shovel to get his attention. "Power Joe, you okay? You threw up a lot,"

Power Joe huffed in embarrassment. "I only did twice and it was only a little bit," he went quiet again and hoped Yuuta would take the hint and leave him alone.

Yuuta sat down next to his friend to show him he wasn't going anywhere. "I know but why did you puke at all? You don't have any problems when we're on a boat because you didn't get sick when we were on that military ship… and it can't be because we're flying because you guys fly when you're Build Tiger or Super Build Tiger…"

"Just drop it, okay?!" Power Joe snapped but froze when Yuuta bit his lip and looked ready to cry. The Kung Fu Detective immediately felt terrible. "Sorry, Boss, I didn't mean to snap at you. I just…"

Yuuta smiled. "It's okay, I know you didn't mean it," he got up and dusted himself off. "I'm still having Mr. Toudou look you over when we get back," he said cheerfully as he walked back to the others.

Everyone else went back to their spots but sat on top of their cargo nets rather than crawling back under them.

Yuuta sat next to Deckard on his cargo net and leaned against his leg. "Whoa, longest day ever,"

Deckard nodded. "And it's not even over yet. At this rate we'll have you home just in time for you to go to school,"

Yuuta groaned and slumped back. "Don't wanna go to school just yet,"

Deckard was about to chide him but stopped when he heard a gurgling sound and Yuuta grabbed his stomach. "Hungry?"

Yuuta gave an embarrassed laugh and smiled apologetically. "Sorry,"

Dumpson looked at him. "Don't be, you haven't had a chance to eat anything aside from that quick meal you and Ayako grabbed before the big match in Domingo Republic,"

Shadowmaru cut in again. :We've got another nine hours before we're back in Japan. Unless you brought yourself some munchies for the ride you're going to have to sleep it off until then.:

"Oh, that's right… Oof!" Yuuta got up and tripped when his feet got tangled in the cargo net. He twisted around to try to untangle himself. "I still have some of that bread that the bread stand guy gave me in my bag,"

Deckard laughed when Yuuta just ended up tangling himself in the net further and helped him free himself. "Go eat, it's not like we're going anywhere anytime soon,"

Yuuta smiled and trotted to the door leading out of the cargo hold. "Okay,"

Deckard paused for a moment before adding. "And get some sleep while you're at it. It's almost the middle of the night back home and you _are _going to school in the morning even if I have to bring you there myself,"

Yuuta stopped at the door to roll his eyes teasingly. "Yes, _mother,"_

Everyone laughed at the gob smacked look on Deckard's face plates as he tried to come up with a decent comeback but Yuuta was already gone so he just laughed along with everyone else and curled up on his cargo net.

After a while everyone, except for Shadowmaru and Joey who were flying alongside with the new mech, decided to catch a few minutes recharge before they got back since they wouldn't be getting back until dark o'clock in the morning.

There really wasn't anything else for them to do anyway; although Power Joe had downloaded an episode for one of his soap operas off the internet to watch on his HUD and McCrane had snuck a magazine to read with him.

However, Power Joe had already watched the episode twice in the duration of their trip and McCrane didn't want anyone to see him read a _girlie _magazine that he had Yuuta secretly buy for him so he could understand human women better—he had wanted to do something for Seia but didn't know what so he was doing some "research"—so he left in the compartment where he kept his spare ammo clips.

So everyone that didn't need to stay awake in order to make the trip crawled under their cargo nets and recharged.

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_Meanwhile_

When Yuuta came up to the front of the plane to rummage in his bag for food, the pilot looked over his shoulder. "What is going on back there? The whole plane just tipped a moment ago!"

Yuuta smiled apologetically. "Sorry, the guys got a little worked up and forgot for a minute they shouldn't all move to one side of the plane,"

The pilot and co-pilot sighed looked at each other with a "kids these days" look on their faces. "Just make sure they're a little more careful from now on. We don't want to end up at the bottom of the ocean because the giant robots are rough housing, now do we?"

Yuuta nodded as he pulled the paper bag out of his bag. "Ok," he sat in his seat and ate his food. The bread was somewhat squished but still edible, however there wasn't much left and he sighed when he was finished. "Should have grabbed something else to eat before we left,"

The pilot overheard him and said. "They had grab-and-go lunch bags for sale at the mess hall at the base for visitors,"

After a moment the co-pilot added. "Speaking of which, I got one of those bags while I was waiting for you guys but it came with a chocolate muffin and I'm allergic to chocolate, you want it?"

Yuuta smiled "Ok, thank you," Yuuta crawled up to the cockpit and retrieved the white paper bag that the co-pilot pointed out behind his seat and sat in his own seat to eat the muffin inside.

There was some other trash in the bag—wrappers from the other items that had been part of the bagged lunch—so Yuuta threw the whole bag into the trash bag hung by his and Ayako's seats.

After he had finished eating, he tried to find a comfortable position to get some sleep; he learned a long time ago that Deckard's threats were not to be taken lightly and if he said he was going to bring him to school tomorrow by force if necessary… he did _not_ want to repeat the time Power Joe brought him to school that one time.

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_Sometime later_

Deckard was roused from recharge by a familiar presence at his side and brought his sensors fully online to see Yuuta next to him. "Yuuta, is everything alright?"

Yuuta hesitated and said. "Yeah, um… is it alright if I sleep back here with you? Ayako talks in her sleep and well…"

Deckard partially transformed to lift the net again and opened his door. "Come on in,"

Yuuta climbed into the front seat again and draped his jacket over himself like a blanket as he curled up to go to sleep. "G'night, Deckard,"

"Good night, Yuuta," Deckard waited until Yuuta and the others were asleep before going into recharge himself since he had patrol as soon as they got back but wanted to make sure his friends were alright first.

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As predicted, as soon as they landed in Japan it was around the time Yuuta normally would have woken up back when he was sneaking out to see Deckard before school.

Deckard drove off the plane and, intent on making sure everyone else on his team got off the plane alright before leaving, let Yuuta out so he could transform and oversee the unloading procedure.

McCrane, on the other hand, transformed halfway down the ramp and waved him off. "Go on ahead. We'll be fine while you take the Boss home so he can get to class on time,"

Deckard waved his thanks and transformed so Yuuta could climb back into his vehicle mode and drive away from the airport.

Yuuta stretched and let his arms fall behind his head. "It's good to be home,"

Deckard hummed in agreement as he drove into the suburban part of Nanamagari City where Yuuta lived.

He saw their neighbor, Mudra, waving at them as he unlocked his restaurant for the day and flashed his lights at him in greeting while Yuuta waved back.

When they _finally _got back to the Tomonaga residence, Deckard backed into the driveway so he could drive out again at a moment's notice and let Yuuta out. "Grab your school bag and some breakfast, Yuuta. I'll give you a lift so you're not late again,"

Yuuta patted his hood on his way inside. "I'll be right back,"

Deckard settled down on his axels and waited for his friend to come out.

He had actually been giving Yuuta rides to school on his way to the precinct every morning ever since that close call with the assassination attempts against the boy at his school.

They still haven't caught the person that hired Monsieur Monde and there was always a chance someone else might make an attempt of their own.

The only time Deckard didn't give Yuuta a ride to school anymore was if he was on duty and couldn't, although he had his suspicions that the others were escorting Yuuta when he could not.

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Yuuta's sisters, Azuki and Kurumi, were sitting down for breakfast when Yuuta came in the door and shouted. "Morning!"

Both girls looked up as he pulled off his shoes and Kurumi asked "Yuuta, are you just now getting back from whatever you were doing with Deckard and the others?"

Yuuta ran upstairs to go to his room. "Yeah, and now their making me go to school after being gone for a couple days,"

Azuki went to the bottom of the stairs to call up after him. "Well, school is important, even if you already have a job,"

Yuuta slumped against the wall with an exasperated sigh. "You sound like the guys, they said if I don't go willingly they're going to carry me to school and toss me into the classroom window,"

Deckard somehow heard him and transformed to go to the open kitchen window and say "No, I said I would bring you to school to make sure you went. I would never throw you, Yuuta,"

Yuuta ran back down the steps to shout. "Yeah, but Power Joe said he'd toss me through the classroom window to make sure I got to class on time and Gunmax said he'd throw me in 'just for the hell of it'," he changed his voice to mimic the Motorcycle Detective mockingly.

Azuki gasped. "Yuuta language,"

Deckard nodded from his spot by the window. "My thoughts exactly, and I'm going to have to have a few words with those two when I get to the precinct,"

Worried he had gotten his friends in trouble, Yuuta added nervously. "They were only kidding,"

Deckard sighed, he knew the boy was trying to cover for his team mates… and stall for time so he wouldn't have to go to school right away. "Just go get ready for school, okay?"

"Okay" Yuuta ran up to his room and came down a few minutes later, clothes changed and his school bag in hand, and sat at the table with his sisters.

Kurumi looked up at him and leaned forward "So, Yuuta how was your trip?"

Yuuta quickly chewed and swallowed the piece of toast he had just bitten off before answering. "Well, we caught the guy we were after. Turns out he had been kidnapping pro-wrestlers from around the world and forcing them to fight in robot suits to make money for 'robot fighting',"

Azuki gasped "That's horrible,"

Kurumi nodded "Yeah, I'm glad you caught him, he deserves to go to prison for what he did,"

Azuki gave her sister a look. "Kurumi, that wasn't very nice. Even if he was a bad man we shouldn't want bad things to happen to people,"

Kurumi looked away sheepishly. "Sorry,"

Azuki's face softened as she looked at Yuuta. "Well, at least everyone got back safely. Are they going to give you guys a little break for a while or do you already have another case to take care of?"

Yuuta swallowed his eggs, wishing his sisters would save the questions for later and let him eat his breakfast. "Actually, the Commissioner called us when we were on our way back. Turns out the American military wants our help with something,"

Kurumi gawked at him "The MILITARY?"

Azuki put a hand over her mouth. "Sounds dangerous,

Yuuta put his hands up. "No, No, it's not like that, it's just…" Yuuta smiled "They're trying to get their own Brave Police in the U.S. They already have two bots built but they can't seem to give them hearts like Deckard and the others so they want us to work with them until they have hearts too,"

"Oh, now I get it," Kurumi nodded her understanding and Azuki let out a sigh of relief that her little brother wasn't in danger and smiled.

"Well, it looks like Deckard and the others have two new team mates for a while,"

Kurumi then smiled excitedly. "So when can we meet the new guys?"

Yuuta looked unsure. "I don't know…"

Deckard leaned back down by the window. "I'm sure you'll see them around eventually. Oh, and only one of them is a 'guy',"

Both girls stared at Deckard, trying to make sense of what he had just said.

"Only one…"

"But how…"

Then it hit them and Azuki asked. "Wait, one of them is a girl?"

Deckard and Yuuta both nodded and Kurumi shouted. "Holy crap, a girl robot, FINALLY!" she threw her arms up triumphantly and then brought them down to look at Yuuta pleadingly. "Can we see? _Please_?"

Yuuta sighed and hung his head. "Why bother asking? Even if I say 'no' you'll just sneak in like that time you packed a fake lunch for me and told the guys at the precinct I forgot mine so they'd let you in,"

Deckard laughed at the memory; Kurumi had really been going to see the Shadowmaru when he had first joined them because wanted to thank him for saving Azuki from his brother, Kagero…. And because she was curious didn't think it was fair that Azuki got to meet the mysterious new mech and she didn't.

The girl herself blushed and waved him off. "What? I never… Oh fine, one of these days you really will forget your lunch, see if I bring it in to you then!" she crossed her arms and looked away with a huffy pout.

Deckard smiled to himself; he really didn't want to interrupt the Tomonagas' little family moment but… "Yuuta, school,"

Yuuta jumped when Deckard reminded him he was going to be late and wolfed down his breakfast before running to grab his school bag on his way to the door. "See you later,"

Deckard looked at Yuuta's sisters. "If you really want to meet the new Braves I can see if we can bring you to the precinct to meet them, or bring them here for a visit once we get them mobile,"

Both girls smiled. "Thanks, Deckard,"

Yuuta ran out into the driveway and saw Deckard was still at the window. "Come on, Deckard, or we'll both be late,"

Deckard straightened up. "Coming, coming, See you later, Azuki, Kurumi,"

They heard Kurumi yell "Later!" when Azuki waved out the window and called out "Drive safely!"

Both girls sat down to quickly finish their own breakfast before running off to school and Kurumi looked at Yuuta's forgotten plate and saw there was still food on it. "Huh, Yuuta didn't finish his breakfast,"

Right as she said that their cat, Urunyan, jumped up onto the table and started nibbling the last big of eggs off of Yuuta's plate and ran off with the crust left from his toast.

"Never mind,"

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><p><em><strong>A.N.: Quick shout out to the people that reviewed andor added; CyberAngelAlexis,**_

_**Comments, questions, suggestions and predictions welcome, flames will be dealt with as necessary.**_


	4. Chapter 4

More Human Than Human

"Talking"

'_thoughts'_

"_Recordings, talking on the phone or singing"_

"_Speaking another language besides Japanese"_

:Talking through the comm.s:

Rated T for language, suggestive material and anything else I might have missed.

Disclaimer: I own nothing but my O.C.s, Starts after the events in "The Masked Brave, Dumpson" and goes from there with a few twists.

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><p>By the time Deckard got Yuuta to school everyone else was already en route to the precinct so he met them halfway and helped escort the convoy sent to transport the American B.P.s since they couldn't get the femme to transform to be driven and they couldn't exactly <em>drive <em>a military jet down main street.

As it was, lot of people were on their way to work or school and a few of them stopped to look at the giant mech that was covered in tarps and strapped down to an oversized flatbed trailer and the big armored trailer; the last time anyone saw one like that was when Deckard made his big public debut and people were naturally curious.

Deckard flashed his lights at the others to let them know he was there and moved to the front of the convoy to clear the roads of civilian drivers and pedestrians. "Hey, guys, did I miss anything?"

Shadowmaru quickly filled him in.

"We got the two new bots unloaded just fine, although the mech didn't fit in a closed trailer like the femme so he's on a flatbed. Private Baker is already his way to the airport, courtesy of McCrane, and Dumpson took Ayako home. Both of them will meet as back at the precinct when they are done dropping the humans off at their destinations and all that's left for us to do is to get these two back in one piece. Other than that you didn't miss a thing,"

Deckard hummed to himself. "Too bad Private Baker already left. I wanted to thank him again for helping us,"

Power Joe laughed from his spot further back in the convoy. "We know, we all thanked him for you. He just said that it was fine, he wanted to do it and if anything happened to them under our watch he was going to come after us with a cutting torch and a shovel,"

Deckard turned one of his rearview mirrors to a better angle for seeing the power shovel. "Dare I ask what he would use those for if it came to that?"

Shadowmaru chuckled darkly. "Ask Drill Boy, we were originally going to have him bring the good Private to the airport but he asked that same question. Once he got the answer whispered to him he insisted that someone else take him,"

Drill Boy from where he was flying above them. :I don't think I like him anymore, he's scary when he wants to be.:

Deckard sent back. :He's just being protective of them.:

Power Joe cut in. :Yeah, we'd say the same thing to anyone that was supposed to look after you if you had to go somewhere else for a while.:

Then Drill Boy sounded slightly panicked. :What? Why would you guys send me away?:

Power Joe backpedaled to try to do some damage control. :I didn't say that…:

Shadowmaru cut him off before he could make things worse. :I think what Power Joe is trying to get at is that it's a brother thing. When we were at the base in California, Private Baker treated '101 like he already saw him as a person and seemed very close to him.:

:Oh, okay,:

They all made it back to the precinct without much trouble, except for getting caught in traffic a few times, but everyone was at full alert just in case; every single time they got a new team mate they got attacked and, with the exception of Shadowmaru and Kagero, it was always someone trying to either steal them or destroy them so they weren't taking any chances with these two.

Commissioner Saejima, Chief Toudou and a few of his technicians were already there waiting for them outside the garage doors that lead into the garage and the maintenance bay when they arrived and they gawked up at the mech on the flatbed trailer trailing behind the armored trailer.

Chief Toudou and the Commissioner looked up at the mech as the technicians unstrapped and uncovered him. The former pinched the bridge of his noise. "Azuma is going to have _kittens_ when he finds out about this,"

Commissioner Saejima didn't even look away from the trailer, his face serious but his eyes betrayed the fact that he felt like a kid on Christmas morning. "Let him, we're making great progress with the Brave Police project and if he hates his job so much he can take that early retirement he's always griping about,"

Deckard walked up to the men. "You need any help getting them to the maintenance bay?"

Chief Toudou looked at his technicians working to unload the trailers and then back at the mech. "I don't know, we have equipment ready to unload them but getting the big guy unloaded might be tricky, he's a bit bigger than we thought he'd be,"

He looked up at the mechs who had gathered around to await further instruction in case their help was needed. "So how was your trip?"

McCrane nodded "It was fine for the most part; the plane rides were a little long though. Speaking of which, Power Joe…" he looked over and saw Power Joe was trying to sneak away and frowned. "Power Joe, get back here!"

The yellow mech in question jumped. "Uh, I just remembered I had something I needed to do when we got back, See ya!" he turned tail and booked it down the street, skidding as he turned around the corner.

Dumpson sighed and walk in the direction his brother had gone. "I'll get him," he started running when he got closer to the corner and the others could hear him shout. "Power Joe, get your aft back here. Boss wanted Chief to look you over when we got back,"

They could hear Power Joe shout "NO!" and the sound of screeching tires that was presumably a chase that ensued after.

Chief Toudou looked up at the remaining Brave mechs for an explanation; giving them the same look his father gave him and his brother when he knew they were hiding something.

McCrane resumed what he had been saying when Power Joe ran off. "Power Joe purged his tanks on the plane, twice; once going to Domingo Republic and then when we left it. He almost purged again when we left California but he was able to keep his diesel down that time,"

"Barely," Drill Boy cut in.

Chief Toudou sighed and raked his fingers through his hair; the Brave Police mechs were like his sons to him in every way except for biological blood relation and no parent liked to be told their child was sick. "Alright, he'll have to come back eventually so I'll have a look at him then,"

He looked at the two trailers that had been brought to them and saw that the mech was now uncovered. "In the meantime, let's see if we can get these two up and running,"

Deckard looked at him. "We got the femme to wake up on the plane at least,"

Both the Commissioner and the Chief looked at him so he elaborated. "Yuuta wanted to get introductions taken care of as soon as possible so we started her manually but she shut back down again shortly after because of low energy,"

Chief Toudou looked at him. "How did you know how to start her up?"

"The technicians in California sent a booklet back with Yuuta to give to you. Speaking of which…" Deckard transformed. "It's in my glove box, sorry if it got a little crumpled,"

Chief Toudou opened Deckard's passenger side door to retrieve the file from his glove box and looked it over while Deckard transformed. "Huh, at least we'll have some clue of what we're dealing with here,"

Commissioner Saejima read over the engineer's shoulder and saw he had turned to the first page of the femme's file. "A woman that comes with instructions, never thought I'd see the day,"

By the time they got both the American BP's in the maintenance bay propped up in their new maintenance cradles, the Commisioner had gone to his office to file some paper work and Dumpson came back dragging Power Joe by the helm fin.

The Kung Fu Detective struggled in his brother's grip. "Ow, ow, ow. Cut it out Dumpson," he looked at the others pleadingly. "Guys, I'm fine, really. Just some plane sickness, I hear it happens to a lot of people,"

Chief Toudou looked up at him. "Power Joe, you're getting a check-up and that's final. We can't have you guys getting sick on us so I need to make sure it's nothing serious,"

Power Joe pouted and Chief Toudou looked at him and then up at the new robots that were just brought in, weighing his options on how to divvy up his work load.

After a moment he sighed. "You guys go get your reports for your last mission written up while I get these two squared away. Power Joe, I want you back out here as soon as you're done, understood?"

Power Joe pulled his "ear" out of Dumpson's servo, which no longer had the death grip it had before. "Yes sir,"

Everyone went to the Decker Room. On the way there, Drill Boy looked up at Power Joe "Why don't you want Chief to look you over?"

Power Joe looked down at his brother. "I don't _need _him to look me over, I'm fine," he shrugged as he walked into the hallway. "Anyway, he's old, he'll probably forget,"

"I _heard_ that! And just for that I'm making a note so I _don't _forget,""

Power Joe cringed. "Crap,"

They all stopped when a technician called out. "Hey Chief, it looks like the girl robot is all ready to go, she just needs some fuel and we can start her up,"

The Brave Police mechs stopped, deciding the wait and see if Chief Toudou could get the femme up and running better than they could, and Toudou looked up at the technician. "Just how low on fuel is she?"

"Running on fumes, sir,"

Toudou cursed under his breath and went over to the fueling station. "I'll get it. You guys make sure she's otherwise up to par so we don't damage anything when we start her up,"

He filled a gray gas can full of gasoline and climbed the steep steps on the scaffolding to pour it in the fuel tank cap in her abdomen. Now that he got a closer look at the femme, Toudou could see the course welds in her plating that were crudely covered by paint.

Toudou looked up at the femme's darkened optics. "Poor girl, what have they been doing to you?"

He quickly glanced at the file he had brought with him and found a note saying that the technicians at the California base ran test runs with their B.P.s being piloted by human pilots through simulated warzones to see how they handled combat situations.

The Chief Engineer looked up at the welds again and saw them for what they were; scars. He looked at the mech and saw he sported similar marks.

He looked back up at the femme as he finished fueling her up. "Well, no more of that, you two. We actually know how to treat a bot around here,"

He pulled the now empty can away and replaced the cap on the femme's fuel tank. "Alright, let's see if Sleeping Beauty will wake up for us,"

The technicians hooked a few wires to the femme's processors in her helm and brought her systems online. Just like on the plane, her blue optics lit up and stared blankly ahead of her and she otherwise showed no reaction to anything around her.

After a few minutes, no one said anything but then Drill Boy piped up. "Now what?"

Chief Toudou rubbed his chin and looked up at Deckard. "How did Yuuta get you going? You weren't able to walk or talk or any of that until he found you,"

Deckard thought, trying to remember everything he and Yuuta did when he was first developing sentience. "He taught me, little by little. It took a while but he was starting from scratch with me, with these two we'll have some sort of foundation to work with,"

He looked at the cables and wires inserted into the femme's frame. "Is it alright if we disconnect her for a while?"

One of the technicians looked up at him. "Yeah, why? What are you going to do?"

Deckard looked at him. "I'm going to see if we can get her walking for a bit. Just baby steps, don't worry," he reassured them and they disconnected the femme from the maintenance cradle so that the supports under her arm-servos were the only thing holding her up beside her legs.

Deckard moved forward slowly and when she didn't react he touched her arm-servo. As a result, her audio finials tilted towards him and he could tell she was scanning him to see if he was a threat. "Ears move, just like Yuuta said,"

Chief Toudou sighed. "She reacts to basic stimuli like loud noises or physical contact. The Build team did the same before we gave them personalities,"

Deckard looked at him and gave the femme a friendly smile. "Hi, I'm Deckard, we're the Brave Police,"

The femme said nothing, she just blankly stared ahead but if Deckard looked closely he could see her audio finials twitching from all the noises in the room they were trying to pick up.

Deckard tried a different approach; he stepped to the side and gestured with a servo to the space in front of the cradle. "Can you walk? Want to come out of there?"

The femme didn't move so he lifted her arm-servos of the arm rests and slowly started to ease her out of the cradle. "Come on, come on out,"

The femme wobbled on her pedes but Deckard caught her before she fell and Shadowmaru supported her on the other side and the two of them supported her until she could walk on her own.

As soon as they let go however, she stopped and they realized that once she got the hang of walking she had just been following them.

Dumpson pointed that out and Deckard looked at him before standing in front of the femme and coaxed her forward with his servos. "Come on, just a little further, you're doing good,"

The femme looked at him almost curiously before stepping forward until Deckard took a step back to get her to walk even further and stopped.

Power Joe huffed "This is going to take _forever,"_

McCrane looked at him "But they didn't give us any deadlines for them so it looks like we've got time,"

Drill Boy held up a digit. "Maybe she just doesn't know where to go. Is it alright if we show her around?"

Some of the others heard a few of the technicians grumbling something along the lines of "What's the point she doesn't have a mind of her own yet?" and they gave them "I heard that" looks before looking at Chief Toudou, silently asking permission.

Toudou smiled and help up his hands in surrender. "Fine, just be careful. We'll work on this other guy while you do that," he and the technicians all turned their attention to B.P. 101.

Drill Boy took the initiative and grasped the femme by the servo and pulled her along with him as he walked around. "Ok, tour starts now. This is the maintenance bay, this is where we get fixed up when we get damaged and where we recharge every night. And if you go this way…"

He pulled her towards the hallway and she dutifully followed like a balloon being pulled on a string by a child.

Deckard ushered the others so they followed behind them. "Come on, guys, those reports aren't going to write themselves,"

They followed the two bots as Drill Boy babbled about the Brave Police and Nanamagari City until they got to the Decker Room. "…and this is the Decker Room where we do all our office work and where we go when we're not out working on a case or patrol,"

They walked into the Decker Room to see Gunmax at his desk, face down in his paperwork.

Dumpson jerked his thumb digit at him. "…and this idiot is Gunmax,"

Power Joe went over to him and leaned down to yell in his audio receiver. "Hey, wake up!"

The Motorcycle Detective jumped and instinctively grabbed at the sides of his desk but missed and grumbled as he sat up. "_Screw you_…"

Then he saw who they had brought back with them, more importantly the _femme _they brought back with them, and stood up to lean against the desk, smirking his usual smirk. "Hey, I'm Gunmax, and you are…"

Shadowmaru crossed his arm-servos. "He certainly got his energy back in a hurry,"

Deckerd frowned at the mech. "Gunmax, this is one of the two bots the Commissioner told us to bring back with us from America. Chief Toudou is examining the other one as we speak,"

Power Joe sat in his chair and reclined back in it with his arm-servos folded behind his helm. "Apparently the people that built them want us to train them so they can have their own Brave police in the States,"

Drill Boy cut in. "Chief and Dr. Kindle, the guy that built them, says they already have personalities like we do but they don't seem to realize it yet so the guys in California want us to work with them so they can have hearts too,"

Dumpson snorted. "More like they don't know how Super A.I.s work and want us to deal with it for them,"

Gunmax lost interest when he realized the femme wasn't reacting to anything anyone said or did. "_Keh_, drones, they're basically drones," he waved over his shoulder as he walked out of the room.

Drill Boy turned to the femme, who has had no reaction whatsoever to anything since they arrived in the room. "Don't worry about Gunmax, he gets like that sometimes. Come on, we're not done showing you around,"

The orange mech grabbed the blue-and-tan femme's servo and pulled her back out the door after Gunmax. "The garage is this way, that's where Deckard parks J-Roader and Gunmax parks Gun Bike and…" The mech's voice trailed off as he went further down the hall.

Once they were gone, Power Joe grinned as he leaned forward to put an elbow-joint on the desk and rest his chin in his servo. "Well, well, well, looks like our little Drill Boy has taken a shine to the new girl on the block,"

McCrane took out a file and started filling out a report for their most recent mission. "Drill Boy is just excited to have a new friend and not be the 'new kid' anymore,"

Power Joe looked at his older brother. "What? Gunmax is newer than Drill Boy,"

Shadowmaru also took out his paperwork for the day. "New to the team, but Gunmax has been around longer than Drill Boy, we just didn't meet him right away,"

Everyone looked at the Ninja Detective and Dumpson asked "How would you know that?"

Shadowmaru grinned as he slowly looked up from his work and folded his servos in a way that reminded the others of a villain in a spy film or Disney movie. "You would be surprised how much information I am privy to,"

"Information? What kind of information?"

Shadowmaru smirked at McCrane, who had asked. "In addition to what I gather for missions, I also have a great deal of information on all of you,"

He waved his servo flippantly. "Mostly it's just basic personal information but I have also acquired enough blackmail material to have you all at my beckoned call…" he made a "come hither" gesture with his servo for emphasis. "…until Boss finishes high school, should I choose to use it in such a manner,"

Shadowmaru calmly returned his attention to his work—as calmly as someone who was trying so hard not to laugh could—while the Build Team gawked at him nervously; their optics pale and if it were possible for them their faces would be too.

Deckard smiled as he sat down in his seat to begin his own paper work. "Well, given your field of work that shouldn't be surprising, Shadowmaru," the smile went away when he looked at Shadowmaru. "You're not going to use it anytime soon, are you?"

Shadowmaru shrugged. "Haven't had to use any of it yet," he sent over the internal comm. links :Don't worry, Master Deckard, I'm not going to tell anyone about the time you lost an arm wrestling match to a work bot.:

Deckard clenched his fist around his pen. :I didn't lose, I didn't want to break it so I let it win.:

Shadowmaru showed no outward reaction. :I know, but the others won't see it that way.:

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After everyone got their reports done and turned in to the out box everyone dispersed; Drill Boy went to a secluded soccer field to play soccer before the local school teams got out of class, Power Joe snuck away to avoid his appointment with the Chief so Dumpson went to hunt him down, Deckard went to hunt Gunmax down to ask the mech what all went on while they were away and McCrane went to the Defense Forces base to visit Seia.

This left Shadowmaru to his own devices and alone with his thoughts; as he usually was these days. Normally, if he didn't have one of his solo missions to keep him busy during times like these he would go to the pier to watch the ships and boats come in and go out with the tides.

However, on his way out, Shadowmaru heard a noise coming from the maintenance bay and crept down the hall to investigate, careful not to reveal himself just yet in case there was an enemy about.

After a moment of listening to footsteps creeping away, the Ninja detective peeked around the corner and saw a shadow retreating from the maintenance bay. It was obviously a bot because the profile of the shadow wasn't small enough to be human.

'_Who could that be?' _He looked around to see what the noise had been and saw that the room had been deserted, not only were there no humans about but the femme was also gone.

The Ninja Detective searched everywhere in case Toudou had Drill Boy put the femme in a secluded part of the med. bay but found nothing, and not a technician in sight to ask.

"Where did everyone go?" he whispered to himself before slipping outside to see Chief Toudou and his technicians working on the big flyer mech they had brought back.

'_Well, found the humans but the femme is still missing.'_

As he thought this, Shadowmaru detected movement in his peripheral vision but whoever it was had gone around the side of the building

After making sure no one else saw, Shadowmaru transformed into his wolf mode and loped after the retreating figure until they were fully in his sight when he looked around the corner of the building.

As he surmised, the femme bot had snuck out and was out and about _on her own. _Shadowmaru narrowed his optics. '_What are you up to, little lady?'_

The femme looked around to see if anyone was looking and transformed into an ambulance and drove away.

Shadowmaru considered his options; on the one servo, he could follow the femme without telling anyone else, on another he could tell the others but then she would get a head start since everyone else will want to come with, or he could just wait and see what happens.

He glanced at the entrance to the building before transforming into his patrol car mode and driving after the blue-and-tan ambulance. '_She probably just wants to explore._ _I'm following an ambulance that has never been to this city before, how hard could it be?'_

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><p><em><strong>A.N.: Comments, questions, suggestions and predictions welcome. Any Flames will be dealt with accordingly.<strong>_


	5. Chapter 5

More Human Than Human

"Talking"

'_thoughts'_

"_Recordings, talking on the phone or singing"_

"_Speaking another language besides Japanese"_

:Talking through the comm.s:

Rated T for language, suggestive material and anything else I might have missed.

Disclaimer: I own nothing but my O.C.s, Starts after the events in "The Masked Brave, Dumpson" and goes from there with a few twists.

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><p>Shadowmaru kept the blue ambulance in sight, but made sure to stay out of <em>her <em>sight, until she pulled over to talk to a small family walking along on the side walk. Well, not _all _of them were walking; there was a young boy in a wheelchair among them.

'_Hmm,_ _it's not like a non-sentient transforming robot would stop and ask for directions,'_

He saw one of the humans nod and, to his surprise, a woman with brunette hair pulled back in a ponytail wearing a blue E.M.T. uniform climbed out of the ambulance and helped push the boy's wheelchair up a hill.

'_What the… where did she come from?'_

While Shadowmaru thought over how he could have missed the femme picking up a human without him noticing while he was tracking her, the woman made it to the top of the hill and started talking to the family.

Curious, he extended his scanner's range to listen in on their conversation.

"_Thank you very much, miss…" _a woman, presumably the mother of the family, said.

"_Artemis, I'm Artemis. So, where you folks headed? If you don't mind my asking,"_ the woman from the ambulance spoke broken Japanese, leading Shadowmaru to believe she was a foreigner.

The man in the group, most likely the father of the family, told her they were heading to a church nearby and Shadowmaru saw the woman smile.

"_Really? Me too… say, since we're going to same way, need a lift?"_ the woman pointed at the ambulance she had just climbed out of.

The family was leery of riding with a stranger and the mother asked if they would get in trouble for riding in an ambulance outside of an emergency but the woman reassured them. "_Don't worry, unless I get a call there's no reason why I can't drive my own vehicle and, like I said, as long as we're going the same way I don't see why not?"_

After some convincing, the family agreed and the boy in the wheelchair was loaded into the back of the ambulance and his little sister climbed in with him while their parents decided which of them would sit up front with the driver.

Shadowmaru didn't get a chance to see much after that as they left as soon as the mother got in the back with her children and the man got in the front passenger seat to ride with the driver.

Curious, he followed them wondering to himself. '_Who is that woman? And why is the new femme bot driving around town giving random people rides?'_

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After driving around for fifteen minutes, Shadowmaru saw the blue ambulance pull up to a church and parked on the other side of the street as everyone piled out.

Now that he had a closer vantage point, Shadowmaru observed the family and saw that the mother was heavily pregnant, her husband walked with a limp and used a cane for support and their little girl was about half Yuuta's age.

'_Hmm, she probably saw them struggling to push the boy's wheelchair uphill and stopped to help,' _he focused on his original prey. '_Are you going to leave once everyone is inside or will you wait?'_

Shadowmaru waited until the doors were closed after everyone was inside the church and slowly pulled away from the curb and into a parking spot next to the blue-and-tan ambulance.

After waiting a moment longer to make sure she wouldn't bolt, Shadowmaru spoke up. "So how long have you been sentient? And yes, I know you can hear me so you can drop the act,"

The optical sensors in the ambulance's headlights turned towards him and spoke in a voice that was exactly like that of the woman that "drove" her. "How long have you known and did anyone follow you here?"

Shadowmaru transformed and sat on the curb at the parking spot he was in. "I figured as much when you snuck out when no one else was about, and no, I wasn't followed when I was following you. So, are you going to answer my question?"

The femme sighed and said. "About two months. Although you can't see it, my holoform is kneeling to pray inside so, technically speaking, I am literally begging on my knees when I say 'please, _please _don't tell anyone'!"

Shadowmaru was surprised by this. '_TWO MONTHS? How have they been keeping it a secret for so long?'_

"If you don't mind my asking, why the secrecy Miss…"

The femme hesitated but answered. "Artemis, my name is Artemis. My brother, Goliath, and I were originally in a team of three but our younger brother, Loki, woke up while the engineers were working on him about a month ago," She saddened as she said this. "They thought he was malfunctioning and shut him down to see what happened,"

Her voice broke when she added. "In the end they decided it would be more _cost efficient_ to strip him down for spare parts for the remaining two robots they had rather than starting over with him,"

Shadowmaru's heart went out to the femme; the loss of his own brother, Kagerou, was still fresh in his mind so he could empathize with her. "I'm sorry,"

Artemis rocked on her axels. "Don't be, you didn't know nor were you the one that did it. As to why we still keep up the act there isn't a doubt in my mind they would do the same to us if they ever found out we evolved on our own,"

Shadowmaru was perplexed by this. "Why would they terminate you for becoming sentient if that's what they sent you with us for?"

Artemis huffed. "Because the monsters that built us are control freaks and are only 'ok' with it now is because they decided they wanted it after seeing what your team can do with Super A.I."

After a moment she added "… and that red truck guy was right when he said they don't know diddily-squid about A.I. let alone Super A.I. so they want you guys to take care of that and you can bet _your _Super A.I. Unit that they will take the credit for everything once they get us back,"

Shadowmaru saw how that made sense but one thing didn't add up; if the American Braves already had the sentience of Super A.I. when they found them and the scientists who built them had nothing to do with it… "If you don't mind my asking, how did you become sentient?"

Artemis sighed and said. "We've been in that military base you found us at pretty much our whole lives. Originally they were going to assign us human 'handlers' to control us but one of them, Private Joey Baker, often stopped by for visits even during after-hours,"

Shadowmaru could hear the smile in her voice as she talked about the Private.

"Everyone thought he was crazy, talking to us like we could understand him. Imagine his surprise when we eventually could understand him and started repeating what he said until we were actually able to talk back. After that he visited us frequently and whenever we were alone he would teach us about human things until we became… well, people,"

Shadowmaru noticed something familiar about her story. "Like Little Boss did with Deckard,"

"I'm not sure what exactly 'Little Boss' did with Deckard so I can't say for certain but pretty much," Artemis backed away slightly, like she was getting ready to run. "Anyways, now you're the only one besides us that knows our secret. What are you going to do?"

Shadowmaru considered for a moment. '_I should tell the others… shouldn't I?' _the Ninja Detective sighed. "I'm not going to lie to my teammates if they ask, _but…"_ he quickly added when Artemis seemed like she was about to get upset.

"Unless they do ask or I absolutely _have _to tell them for some reason…" Shadowmaru smirked. "They don't need to know, do they?"

Artemis let out a relieved sigh. "Thank you,"

They were quiet for a moment before Shadowmaru spoke again. "By the way, that 'woman' that drove you here…"

"My holoform?"

Shadowmaru was baffled by the unfamiliar word but at least it confirmed his suspicion that the driver wasn't real. "Yeah, that. What is it and where did you get it?"

Artemis chuckled. "Wow, you ask a lot of questions. I thought ninjas were supposed to be quiet,"

Shadowmaru stretched out to playfully poke her front bumper with his toe. "I'm a Ninja _Detective_, my job is to gather information,"

"Oh, I see," Artemis backed away so his ped fell to the ground. "A holoform is a solid light hologram, the projector unit is remotely linked to an A.I. unit and can be used to project images that look and feel real because a thin adaptable force field under the surface of the hologram makes it feel real. I've been using mine to project a driver so no one sees an ambulance driving itself and freaks out,"

Shadowmaru smiled as he righted himself on the curb. "Really? I could use one of those,"

Artemis shyly rolled back into her original spot. "You know, I still have Loki's holoform unit with me. They _off'ed_ him before I could finish it but if you want it you can have it when it's done,"

Shadowmaru stared at her. "'Finish it'? You mean you made that?"

The ambulance rocked on her suspension in the equivalent of a nod. "Yep, they didn't want all the special technicians running around on the battle field so, in addition to downloading 'medical training' into my data banks, they also gave me engineering skills so I could 'play doctor' to my fellow machines as well as my human comrades if anyone got hurt in a fight,"

Shadowmaru thought of all of the times he and the others were damaged in battle and would have been saved a lot of trouble if a mechanic had been closer to, if not at, the scene. "Have I mentioned how glad I am you're on our team?"

Shadowmaru realized how late it was and stood up, dusting himself off. "Speaking of which, I had better get back before someone notices I'm gone,"

Artemis hummed in acknowledgment "And I'd better go back to paying attention to the mass, everyone is wondering why my holoform is just sitting there while everyone else is standing for a hymn,"

Shadowmaru chuckled as he transformed back into vehicle mode. "Wouldn't want that, would we? I'll see you back at the station, Artemis,"

"_See you later, _Shadowmaru,"

Shadowmaru pulled away from the church and drove through the streets like a shark in the ocean; fast and dangerous, but virtually unseen until he wanted to make himself known.

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_The Decker Room_

The Build Team were the only ones in the Decker Room when Shadowmaru got back to the Decker Room; meaning Gunmax was… wherever he went when he wasn't there—they still haven't even found where the Motorcycle Detective recharged since he didn't in the maintenance bay with the rest of them, let alone where he went when he wasn't on shift with them aside from the freeway where he patrols—and Deckard was probably still looking for him.

McCrane looked up when the Ninja Detective came into the Decker Room and sat at his desk. "Shadowmaru, where were you just now?"

Shadowmaru grabbed a file from his desk and started looking through it. "Doing ninja stuff,"

Before he could really read anything, however, Chief Toudou came in and looked around. "Say, guys, you wouldn't happen to have the femme in here somewhere, would you?"

McCrane shook his helm. "No, wasn't she in the Maintenance bay?"

Chief Toudou raked his finger through his hair. "Not anymore,"

Drill Boy looked worried about their new teammate. "Where could she be?"

"How long has she been gone?" Shadowmaru knew how long Artemis had been gone; he just wanted to know how long anyone else knew.

Chief Toudou shrugged. "We went to check on her after we finished with the mech and found her gone. We already searched the building, she's not here. Any of you guys see anything suspicious?"

Everyone shook their helms and looked at each other for an answer but no one else had one, except…

Shadowmaru put his file away and transformed into wolf mode as he went to the special entrance they had put in so he could come and go as he pleased in this form—quaintly nicknamed the "doggy door" by the others—and said "I'll go look for her. She couldn't have gone far,"

As soon as Shadowmaru was outside, he loped down the street, contacting Artemis as he ran. :Artemis, are you still at the church?:

After a moment he got a response. :Yes, but mass will be over soon. Why?:

Shadowmaru ran faster. :Everyone else has noticed you're gone. Don't go back to base until I find you, I told everyone I would go out and look for you so no one else would.:

:Oh, thank you. I was going to take the Toudous home before heading back but did you want to meet somewhere instead?:

Shadowmaru slowed to a jog. :Take them home first and meet me at the intersection two blocks from the precinct, we can go from there.:

He came to a dead stop and had to go over what the femme just said. :Did you just say 'Toudous'?:

Artemis hesitated before answering. :Yes, Ryuu and Rosa Toudou and their kids, Tor and Meg… why? Do you know them?:

Shadowmaru hummed to himself and wondered out loud. "I wonder if they are related to Chief Toudou," then he spoke into the comm. link. :The name sounds familiar, I'll see you at the rendezvous.:

:Alright, see you.:

Shadowmaru looked around, wondering if he should go right there or wander around himself for a while.

Then he saw Power Joe driving past him, heading in the direction of the middle school.

'_Hmm, probably visiting the children. Better make sure he stays out of trouble,' _he trotted after the power shovel.

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_Meanwhile, at the school_

Yuuta sat with his friends during lunch hour, telling them what little he could about the mission in Domingo Republic and finally asking what he had happened while he was away.

Kikumaro put his elbows on the table top and rested his head in one hand and pushed his glasses further up his nose with the other. "You didn't miss much, they had us learn a new gymnastics move in gym class and there was a pop quiz in math and nothing interesting happened outside of school either,"

Masaki folded his hands behind his head. "Yeah, it was bor-ring!"

Emily nodded and held her chin in her hands as she stared off into space, daydreaming. "Yeah, it must be nice to be able to solve crimes and travel the world like you do, Yuuta,"

Yuuta coughed on the milk he had been drinking when she said that and said "Yeah but it's not always all it's cracked up to be,"

Masaki shrugged. "Ah, don't be such a baby, Yuuta. It can't be that bad,"

The kids finished eating and went outside to hang out until the bell rang. Emily suddenly perked up and looked hopeful. "So, did you bring something back?"

Kikumaro looked at Yuuta. "Yeah, like a wrestler mask?"

Yuuta smiled nervously. "I'd give you one of the ones the guys wore but Dumpson threw his away the first chance he got and everyone else's costumes got all messed up,"

The other three kids looked disappointed. "Bummer,"

Yuuta considered telling them about the American Braves to cheer them up but he wasn't sure if he was supposed to or not. '_Well, no one said I COULDN'T tell anyone about them…' "_But we did bring back…"

Suddenly, Masaki pointed to the front gate in front of the school. "Hey, look, it's Power Joe,"

The other three looked up and saw Power Joe pull up in front of the school and transform.

Yuuta frowned; after all the trouble they had gotten in last time, he had asked Power Joe to not come to the school during school hours unless it was an emergency and judging by how at ease the Kung Fu Detective looked there was no emergency.

Yuuta grumbled "I told him he can't just pop in during school like this,"

Emily just waved for the others to follow her as she went over to the gates. "Come on, let's go say 'hello',"

Power Joe saw his friends heading his way as he made his way to the gates but was stopped when Shadowmaru suddenly pulled up and transformed to grab him by the scruff bar.

"Hey, what gives, mutt?"

Shadowmaru dragged him away from the gait and pointed to a spot further down the fence line saying "Over here, over here," in a hushed yell to the children so they would stay on the other side of the fence.

They kids were confused but complied and went to where the fence was between them and the Brave police mechs.

When Power Joe was released he turned to glare at the Ninja Detective who just grinned smugly and said. "We can't get in trouble for being on school grounds if we're not actually on school grounds. Stay on this side of the fence and you should be fine,"

Power Joe looked at the fence and then back at Shadowmaru, seeing how that made sense. "Oh, good call,"

He smiled down at the kids crowding against the chain link fence and crouched down to their level. "Hey kids, how's it going? Staying out of trouble?"

Emily looked away with a huff. "What do you mean? I always stay out of trouble,"

Kikumaro looked at her with exasperation. "Oh, yeah right,"

Masaki gave Power Joe a mock glare "Are _you _staying out of trouble?"

Power Joe smiled "Always,"

Shadowmaru scoffed and crossed his arm-servos. "_Keh, _you _are _trouble,"

Yuuta looked up at them. "So, what brings you guys here?"

Power Joe pretended to be offended and asked innocently. "Why Boss, can't a guy visit his friends after not seeing them for a few days?"

Shadowmaru thwacked him on the helm and deadpanned. "Power Joe is here hiding from Chief Toudou since McCrane told him you wanted him to give Power Joe a check-up when we got back and I saw him heading to the school and wanted to make sure he didn't get in trouble… again,"

Power Joe looked at the purple mech. "I told you guys, I don't _need _a damn check-up! I'm fine!"

"Power Joe…" the mech looked at Yuuta and saw he was looking at him with his eyes narrowed and his arms crossed. "Do I need to make you stay home when everyone is else on a case?"

Power Joe was taken aback but didn't have time to respond because Shadowmaru pinched his helm fin, making him yelp.

"If I had time to drag him back to the precinct by the audios like Dumpson did earlier I would…" he let Power Joe go and looked at him uncaringly as the mech rubbed the fin. "Sadly, I don't. I've already got a job to do so you'll just have to… what was the phrase you used before? 'Man up and get it over with'?"

Emily frowned and shook her finger at Power Joe. "Yeah, Power Joe; go get your check-up so you don't get sick,"

Shadowmaru straightened up "Speaking of which, I had better get back on task,"

Yuuta looked up at him. "What are you up to anyway? I don't remember you having any cases around here today"

Shadowmaru shook his helm. "I'm not on a case, Little Boss," he looked around to see if anyone was listening and knelt down to whisper so only their little group could hear. "Deckard taught the femme to walk when Chief got her up and running and Drill Boy showed her around. Now she's wandered off so I'm out looking for her,"

Yuuta slumped "Ah, I missed her first steps?" then his eyes widened. "Wait, she's _missing?"_

Kikumaro looked up at the Ninja detective. "What's a femme?"

Power Joe quickly explained. "Mechs are boy robots, Femmes are girl robots,"

Emily squealed excitedly. "There's a girl robot now? I want to see!"

Yuuta looked at her. "That's what Kirumi said,"

Kikumaro looked at him at pointed at himself and the other two. "Well, maybe we want to see them too,"

Masaki frowned "Yeah, why didn't you tell us there was a new Brave police?"

Yuuta huffed "There's two, actually. I was just about to tell you about them when Power Joe showed up,"

"Oh,"

Power Joe stood up "I'll help you look,"

"No!" Shadowmaru said a little too quickly so he added. "I can track better alone, you'll only slow me down. Besides, you have a prior appointment, remember?"

Power Joe huffed. "That can wait,"

Shadowmaru crossed his arm-servos. "Don't make me call your brothers,"

Yuuta looked up at the Ninja Detective. "I'll help,"

Masaki clenched his fist. "Us too!"

"Yeah!" Emily and Kikumaro cheered in agreement.

Shadowmaru was touched by their eagerness to help but he smiled as he waggled his digit and clicked his glossa at them. "_Tsk, tsk, tsk, _you four need to get back to class before you get in trouble,"

"But the bell hasn't rung yet," just as Masaki said that, the warning bell rang to let the students know that lunch hour was over.

Shadowmaru looked down at the four children who turned to look at the school. "You were saying?"

Yuuta looked up at Shadowmaru "But if this is Brave Police business I can get a tardy slip from the office and…"

Shadowmaru reached over the fence to turn Yuuta around and nudge him in the direction of the school, despite the boy's protests. "If we need you there we'll call the school and they'll let you out of class so we can come get you. If not then get yourself to class, Little Boss, or I'll tell Deckard you're skipping school,"

Yuuta gasped and turned to look up at the ninja. "You wouldn't,"

"Try me,"

Yuuta slumped in defeat and trudged after the other students filing back into the school. "Come on guys,"

Masaki, Kikumaro and Emily looked up at Power Joe, trying to get him to side with them but he smiled and said. "Go to class, I'll bring you guys to the precinct to meet the new bots after school,"

"Cool!"

"You'd better!"

"See you later!"

Kikumaro, Masaki and Emily waved as they and Yuuta jogged back to the school.

Power Joe looked at Shadowmaru. "So, where do we start?"

Shadowmaru face palmed and pointed in the general direction of the precinct. "_I_'m going to start searching the neighborhoods surrounding the precinct to see if I can get the femme's trail and go from there._ You_ are going back to the precinct before Toudou reports you missing and the Board of Directors declares you rogue as a result,"

Power Joe shifted the light in his optics to mimic an eye roll, a habit he picked up from the human children, and waved him off. "They wouldn't do that,"

Shadowmaru nodded "They didn't hesitate to condemn Gunmax after someone dropped off those pictures that supposedly showed him wreaking havoc with a local gang,"

He walked away and Power Joe followed him. "That was different, those pictures were convincing,"

Shadowmaru turned so he was walking backwards to look at Power Joe as they walked. "Not quite, I got another look at the pictures after Gunmax took off with Deckard that day. THE BIKES WEREN'T EVEN THE SAME! Everyone was just so focused on the image of Gunmax they didn't even notice,"

He turned and started walking forward again. Power Joe hesitated; he hadn't known about the bike being different, he—like the others—had given Gunmax the benefit of the doubt and tried to buy him some time for him to prove himself.

Power Joe trotted to catch up since Shadowmaru was somehow able to keep ahead of him even when walking backwards. "How could you tell the bikes were different?"

Shadowmaru didn't even bother looking back this time. "The one in the picture was gray with red strobe lights on the sides with Highway Patrol decals, but the real Gun Bike is white with orange strobe lights on the sides and Highway Patrol decals that have the Brave Police emblem in the center,"

Power Joe scratched his helm "Huh, must have missed that," He ran into Shadowaru when the mech stopped suddenly.

"What are you doing?"

Power Joe looked at him. "Huh?"

Shadowmaru pointed over his shoulder. "The precinct is that way, why are you going this way?"

Power Joe huffed. "Maybe I want to help you, ever think of that?"

This time it was Shadowmaru's turn to huff. "I don't need help,"

Power Joe clenched his fists. "And I don't need a check-up,"

Shadowmaru looked around to locate any nearby traffic cameras. "Yes you do, whereas I can hack into nearby security systems and use the traffic cameras to locate her,"

"Or do the dog nose thing you did in the Hourglass and sniff her out,"

Shadomaru spun around to glare at the mech; he was getting really sick of the dog puns that mostly came from Power Joe. "Alright, smart aleck, I'll make you a deal. If you can keep up you can come with, but if you fall behind or lose track of me, even for a moment, you will go back. Deal?"

Power Joe looked skeptical. "How do I know you won't just use your jet mode to ditch me in the air?"

"I won't. So, deal?" Shadowmaru smiled as he held out his servo for Power Joe to shake and wasn't surprised when the other mech smiled and took it.

"You're on,"

Shadowmaru had to hold back his snickers; Power Joe had obviously forgotten that even in his wolf mode he was faster than the power shovel and if he used his patrol car mode…

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_Fifteen minutes later_

Power Joe drove at full speed down an abandoned back road. "Where did that little bastard go now?"

Meanwhile, Shadowmaru perched on the edge of a nearby roof top trying not to laugh out loud. '_Oh, times like this I wish we were able to eat popcorn,'_

After a few minutes of watching the Kung Fu Detective scramble about on a wild goose chase, Shadowmaru called the Decker Room on his comm. link.

:Brave Police Headquarters, McCrane speaking.:

Shadowmaru followed Power Joe's movements with his optics. :McCrane, it's Shadowmaru. I think one of you might want to come and get Power Joe, he's been circling the same building for the past ten minutes.:

:Odd, why would he do that?:

:He found out the femme was missing and wanted to help look for her instead of going back to the Chief for his check-up.: Shadowmaru snickered: I told him if he could keep up with me he could help me look but if I managed to lose him he had to go back.:

There was a moment of silence before. :You lost him, didn't you?:

Shadowmaru looked down and saw Power Joe circle around the block and check a different street for any sign of the ninja detective. :And now he's driving around to make it look like he knows where he's going,"

He could hear McCrane sigh. :Alright, we'll be right there. Speaking of the femme, any sign of her?:

Shadowmaru reached up to touch his head band and hacked the traffic camera system to check on the intersection where he had agreed to meet Artemis and found she was driving down the street to it. :I think I just saw her but I'm going to go for a closer look to make sure. See ya, McCrane.:

He cut off the transmission and rolled away from the edge of the roof to run to the other side of the building and jump off.

After freefalling for a few feet, Shadowmaru landed on the roof of a lower building to slow some of his momentum and back flipped off of it to slow his fall even further and land in a crouch on the street below.

Once on the ground, he transformed and drove away from the area, hoping he could get to Artemis before someone else did or all the secrecy would have been for nothing.

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><p><em><strong>Quick shout out to the people that reviewed andor added; Calimvir,**_


	6. Chapter 6

More Human Than Human

"Talking"

'_thoughts'_

"_Recordings, talking on the phone or singing"_

"_Speaking another language besides Japanese"_

:Talking through the comm.s:

Rated T for language, suggestive material and anything else I might have missed.

Disclaimer: I own nothing but my O.C.s, Starts after the events in "The Masked Brave, Dumpson" and goes from there with a few twists.

* * *

><p>Dumpson and McCrane were in the process of dragging Power Joe back to the precinct by the arm-servos when Shadowmaru came around the corner, pulling the femme by the servo and occasionally coaxing her forward or away from the curb when she started to veer off into traffic.<p>

McCrane looked at Shadowmaru. "Ah, Shadowmaru, I see you brought the femme back safely,"

Remembering his promise to not tell anyone anything unless they ask, Shadowmaru decided to talk as little as possible, that way unless they outright asked "Is she sentient?" he wouldn't have to tell them the truth. "Mmm-Hmm,"

Unfortunately, Drill Boy wasn't deterred as he came out of the garage and asked. "Where did you find her?"

Shadowmaru glanced at the femme out of the corner of his optics—he didn't turn his helm so no one saw him look—and told a quick half-truth. "Out on the street, she was wandering around like she was lost. I don't think she was fully aware…" that he was following her. "…but she isn't completely inanimate,"

Power Joe sniggered as he said. "She didn't give you any trouble did she?"

Shadowmaru shook his helm, hoping everyone would drop the subject as they made their way to the maintenance bay. "No, she didn't,"

Chief Toudou looked up at them when they came in. "Ah, good, you're back," he looked up at Shadowmaru. "Any problems?"

Shadowmaru shook his helm and told him the same thing he told the others. That was one lesson he had learned early in life; if you're going to lie, even if it's a half-truth, always keep your story straight no matter how many times you have to tell it.

While the rest of the Build Team tried to coerce Power Joe into his maintenance cradle, Shadowmaru placed the femme in hers and let the technicians hook her up to it.

As Shadowmaru stepped away he looked at both the American B.P.s and that same pity he felt for them back in California came back; he and the others were discriminated against because they were robots, yes, but these two were living in fear that if they acted like anything other than what the humans wanted them to be they would be killed.

Just then they heard an alarm go off in the Decker Room and all the present mechs jumped before running into the Decker Room to see what was going on.

When they got there the Commissioner was waiting for them. Since Deckard wasn't there, McCrane—being the unofficial second-in-command—was the one to ask "Commissioner, what's the situation?"

Commissioner Saejima looked at them with a look of seriousness. "Do you remember the incident with 'Gawan' a while back?"

Power Joe snorted. "How could we forget something like that?"

Drill Boy looked at the others. "What? I wasn't here yet, what happened?"

Dumpson quickly explained. "We had to fight a giant monster after we destroyed a bridge to keep it from entering the city. Boss got swallowed by it, Deckard went ballistic when the Defense Forces were going to try to blow it up with Boss inside…"

Power Joe grinned at McCrane and jeered. "…and McCrane met_ Seia_," he said the Colonel's name in a singsong voice to tease his brother.

McCrane was not amused and kicked Power Joe in the shins in the most discreet way he could manage, making the other mech yelp and grab his leg as he scooted away to get out of range muttering "'Pacifist' my aft,"

Commissioner cleared his throat. "Well, it would seem that the bio-scientist that had created him is up to his old tricks again. A few officers from another department in our precinct had been called out to investigate reports on suspicious activity and the last thing we heard of them was…"

He took out a remote and turned on the monitor on the wall and played a recording, no picture but the audio was more than enough for them to get a mental picture.

"…_This is Unit 3, we have infiltrated the premises but the suspect has…" _they heard a crash in the back ground along with the sounds of screaming and gun fire. "_Ah! Shit, what is that thing?"_

More screaming and gunfire. "_…requesting back up! I repeat, requesting back-" _there was a scream, not in the background this time, and a _crunch _as the transmission cut off.

The others stared at the blank monitor in horror.

"Oh…"

"…my…"

"God!"

The Commissioner nodded grimly. "And a few minutes later, _this _came on the news," he raised the remote again and turned on a local news channel and they could see a giant monster of some kind terrorizing the outskirts of the city.

It appeared to be reptilian with gray-green scales and had what appeared to be giant bat wings on its back.

McCrane narrowed his optics. "Yeah, that looks like something the scientist that made Gawan would create,"

Commissioner Saejima paused the video feed. "The scientist's name is Dr. Madoh, we have been searching for him and his assistant ever since the Gawan case but both of them have been laying low… until now,"

Shadowmaru lifted a digit to his comm. link. "I'm calling Deckard and Gunmax, we're going to need everyone for this,"

Everyone waited as the Ninja Detective spoke aloud into his comm. link. "Deckard, did you find Gunmax yet? Because we have a situation," he paused and said. "What do you mean you…" his optics widened and he looked at the others.

"They're already at the scene, and it doesn't sound good,"

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_Fifteen minutes prior_

Deckard drove as fast as he dared down the highway after the part-time Patrolman on his team. "Gunmax, wait up!"

Gunmax just laughed and revved Gun Bike's engine like he was going to go even faster. "What's wrong, _Patoka,_ too fast for you?"

Deckard grumbled and shouted back. "No, I just actually _obey _the speed limit we're supposed to be _enforcing!"_

Gunmax laughed again and turned around to look at Deckard, putting Gun Bike on autopilot as he did so. "You're cute when you're angry, you know that?"

Deckard threw a little bit of caution to the wind and drove faster. "If that's true then I'm going to be _adorable _if you crash into something because you're being reckless!"

Gunmax turned and hit the brakes, screeching to a stop on the shoulder of the road.

Deckard pulled up next to him and saw he was glaring straight ahead with a death grip on the handle bars. "Gunmax?"

Gunmax refused to look at him. "Are you really going to go there again, Deckard?"

Deckard transformed and tried to lean into Gunmax's line of sight but he couldn't tell exactly where the mech was looking because of his visor. "What do you mean? Go where again?"

Gunmax reset his vocalizer, which sounded like a human clearing their throat, and Deckard heard a few beeps and clicks before _his _voice came out of Gunmax's mouth. "_What if something does happen?"_

Deckard realized that Gunmax was lip-syncing to a recording of what he had said to him when he had called him out on his reckless methods when they had first met.

Deckard opened his mouth to say something but before he could Gunmax said in a quiet voice. "What if the kid gets hurt because you're not able to protect him when he follows you out into the line of duty?"

Deckard gasped and glared at the mech. "Over my dead body,"

Gunmax smirked and turned to look at him. "I know, that's why I asked you that,"

Deckard was speechless. "Wha…"

Gunmax held up both servos in a shrug. "You came online after they shut you down because you wanted to protect Yuuta from a crook that wanted to steal you from the police and use you for his own purposes. I was created to safeguard the highways and everyone on it with the Highway Patrol.

He let his servos fall into his lap as he stared at Deckard. "You asked me 'What if something happens because you're not doing a good job of protecting everyone?' but what would you say if someone asked you that?"

Deckard looked at Gunmax, orange optics like embers, "I repeat, over. my. dead. body,"

He took a determined step closer to Gunmax with each word until he was leaning over Gun Bike at him. "And that applies to _everyone_, Gunmax,"

He stared into the dark visor where he could just make out the outline of the Motorcycle Detective's optics until the mech realized he was included in everyone and smirked. "_Aww, _we gonna hug now?"

Deckard took a step back and was about to scold him for the smart ass remarks when they both heard an explosion in the distance. "What was that?"

They both turned to see a mushroom cloud rising up from uptown Nanamagari.

"Nothing good," Gunmax started up Gun Bike and drove away. "Let's go!"

The two drove as fast as they could without crashing into anything until they reached the scene of the explosion and saw a fifty foot monster smashing anything and everything in its path.

Gunmax looked up at the creature. "_Another _giant monster? Where the hell do these things keep coming from?"

Deckard transformed and looked up at the creature that reminded him of a dragon from the books Yuuta had shown him. "I don't know but without the command code from Yuuta's badge I can't merge into J-Decker to fight it,"

Gunmax smirked. "_Sucks to be you. _Change!" he transformed Gun Bike around him to form Gunmax Armor and flew up to fire on the monster's face.

Deckard brought a digit to his comm. link to call for back up, only to find Shadowmaru was already calling him so he just answered the call without realizing it.

:Deckard, did you find Gunmax yet? Because we have a situation.:

Deckard looked up at the mech flying overhead trying to keep the monster's attention on him. :Yeah, I found him. We kind of have our own situation on our hands.:

:What do you mean you…:

Deckard quickly rattled off the situation as he got out his gun and tried to give Gunmax some cover fire. "Giant lizard monster attacking the city, Gunmax and I were near the general vicinity and are attempting to hold it off until help arrives.:

He could hear Shadowmaru talking to someone in the background before saying. :Ok, glad we're all on the same page. We're on our way right now. Oh by the way, Commissioner wanted me to tell you he's planning on calling this one Dragowan for the case files since it looks like a dragon and the same people that created Gawan created it.:

Deckard ducked and rolled as a car was thrown his way and dumped the shells out of his revolver. :Well, at least we know what to call it, the nicknames Gunmax has been shouting at it are vulgar at best.:

He tried to balance the gun against his leg so he could try to reload it with one servo while he kept his digit to his comm. link but it didn't work so he put the gun away and finished the call as he ran to make sure the street as well as all of the nearby cars and buildings were empty of civilians.

:Someone needs to get Yuuta, we're going to need him to issue the command to form J-Decker and Super Build Tiger.:

:Roger, Shadowmaru out.:

The communiqué ended so Deckard quickly reloaded his gun and resumed firing on any part of the monster, Dragowan, he could reach with the range of his gun but the bullets ricocheted off the creature's scales.

"Dammit!" Deckard flung his bullet casings at the monster just for spite and reloaded as he ran in a flanking maneuver around Dragowan to try to locate a weak spot.

Meanwhile, Gunmax Armor flew around the creature's head and fired at any place that Deckard couldn't get to until he landed a shot on the corner of one of its eyes.

With a roar of pain and outrage, Dragowan took a deep breath and unleashed a jet of flames from its mouth at Gunmax Armor, who flew away to evade it.

"_HOLY SHIT, _IT BREATHES FIRE!"

Deckard looked up as the Motorcycle Detective came to hover above him. "Yeah, when I called the others a minute ago Shadowmaru said Commissioner wants us to call it Dragowan for the records because it's a dragon and its predecessor was named 'Gawan',"

Gunmax Armor scoffed as he reloaded his rifle. "Who comes up with these names?" he looked down at Deckard. "Did they say anything else or did they just want to know the thing's name before we shoot it full of lead or die trying?"

Deckard started to answer but paused to dodge another vehicle—this time it was a mail truck—that was thrown at them while Gunmax Armor flew higher to avoid it. Once the Motorcycle Detective was back in earshot he explained. "The others are on their way. We just need to hold our ground until they get here,"

Just then, Dragowan slammed its fists into the ground and split the pavement open in a huge crack from where it was standing to the far end of the street.

The two mechs looked at the huge crack that had formed between them and then at each other.

Gunmax tilted his helm towards the source of the rift and quipped. "At this rate I don't think there will be much ground to hold by the time they get here,"

Deckard felt the ground tremor and saw that Dragowan was charging at them on all fours. "Gunmax, look out!"

Too late, the creature slashed at the Motorcycle Detective with one of its claws and knocked him into a nearby building.

"GUNMAX!" Deckard started to go over and check on the mech but Dragowan charged him next, forcing him to run backwards as he fired at the creature's face since the body and legs seemed to have thicker armor.

He cursed under his breath when he ran out of bullets and quickly dove out of Dragowan's path to take cover behind what was left of a wall of a collapsed building, reloading his gun while the creature's momentum carried it past his hiding spot.

Deckard held his gun at the ready as he put his back to the side of the alleyway he was in and leaned around the corner to locate Dragowan, finding that it had gotten itself between two buildings and was having trouble turning around for another run.

Taking advantage of the momentary lull, Deckard ducked into the hole in the building that Gunmax Armor had been knocked into. "Gunmax?"

A pile of rubble fell apart as the mech sat up in the middle of it. "Ow, that's going to hurt tomorrow,"

Deckard grabbed Gunmax Armor's servo and pulled him out of the rubble but stopped when he heard someone cry out behind them.

Both mechs turned to locate the source of the noise and Gunmax Armor leaned over to examine a spot where parts of the ceiling had fallen into a lean-to against the wall. "Deckard, I think someone's under there,"

"I know," Deckard went to peer between the boards. "Can anyone hear me under there?"

He heard a woman crying and a man called out. "Help us! We're trapped!"

Deckard and Gunmax Armor both reached forward to start digging the humans out but had to cover their helms when the rest of the roof was suddenly ripped away. They looked up to see Dragowan had knocked the rest of the building away with its tail and was stomping down the street.

Gunmax Armor took out his rifle and cocked it. "Dig them out, I'll keep Mr. Scaly occupied," he launched himself into the air and flew after the monster before Deckard could stop him.

Deckard returned his attention to the pile of rubble and started pulling away boards and beams away, careful not to bring more of it down on top of the humans. "Hold on, I'm going to get you out of there,"

After a few minutes of digging, Deckard had cleared an opening big enough for a young man and woman to crawl out of the rubble. He looked down at the couple as they held each other and told the other how glad they were that they were alright.

After letting the two lovers have their moment Deckard asked "Was there anyone else in here with you when the building came down?"

The woman looked up at him. "A waitress pulled a woman behind the bar with her when the monster showed up and they hid back there. We were sitting in a booth and hid under our table,"

Deckard looked around and realized that they were in a café, what was left of it at least, and tried to locate where the bar would be so he could find the people that had supposedly hiding behind it. "Where?"

The man pointed to the far side of the room they were in. "Over there,"

Deckard nodded. "Thank you. You two had better go, it's not going to get any safer here until we get _that…" _he jerked his thumb digit toward the window to indicate the fight outside. "…under control,"

The couple nodded and ducked outside and ran in the opposite direction of the gunfire and animalistic roars while Deckard made his way to the front of the room, careful of where he stepping in case there was someone under the rubble.

"Hello, is someone there?"

"Deckard?"

Deckard looked over his shoulder to see Power Joe standing in the hole in the wall while Dumpson peered through it. "Guys,"

The two Build Team mechs entered the room fully and Dumpson asked. "What happened here?"

Deckard returned his attention to the rubble and scanned it for any signs of life. "I just got done digging a young couple that was trapped in here out of the rubble, they told me on their way out that a waitress had pulled a woman behind the bar with her when the initial attack happened and they got trapped when the ceiling came down,"

Dumpson went to help Deckard dig through the rubble while Power Joe kept watch at the opening in case Dragowan came back.

After a while McCrane came to switch places with Power Joe so the Kung Fu Detective could join in the fight. When he looked into the café he saw that Deckard had suddenly became frantic and went over to them. "Deckard, why don't you go help the others with Dragowan? Search and Rescue is supposed to be our thing,"

Deckard stopped and help up his servo. "Shh, listen," they stopped and listened. For a moment all they could hear was the sounds of the battle outside but then they found they could hear other noises—small, scared noises—under the rubble.

Dumpson looked at Deckard. "You said a waitress pulled a woman under there?"

Deckard nodded. "That's what I was told,"

McCrane leaned closer. "So why does that sound like… Oh no,"

"My thoughts exactly," Deckard started digging more frantically than before and Dumpson did the same along with McCrane who had come over to help with the digging until he stopped and waved the others over.

"Hey, I found them!"

The other two Brave Police crawled over to look in the hole McCrane had dug and saw a young girl slightly older than Azuki with dark hair with purple streaks in it wearing a pink and white waitress uniform with her arms around an older woman who was curled up on her side.

By examining the way the two were arranged they appeared to be shielding something that was cradled in the woman's arms.

Closer examination revealed what that something was as well as the source of the noises they had heard before; a crying baby, wrapped in a pink blanket and wriggling in her mother's arms as she voiced her discontent to the world.

Dumpson carefully poked the woman on the back. "Hey, you okay?"

The waitress opened her eyes and looked up at them, a bloody cut on her forehead clearly visible. "Is… Is it gone?"

Deckard shook his helm. "No, it's outside but the rest of our team is keeping it busy while we get you out of here,"

McCrane reached down to help the girl up. "Can you walk?"

The waitress nodded as she shakily stood up and let McCrane lift her out of the wreckage. "I think so,"

They heard a loud crash outside and looked up to see Dragowan had knocked over another building. Dumpson looked down at the girl. "Can you run?"

"Try and stop me!" she slid out of McCrane's servo. She stopped and looked over her shoulder. "What about…"

Dumpson nudged the woman in the hole again to try to wake her up and scanned her to make sure she was still alive when she didn't. "She's out cold. One of us will have to carry her out,"

"I'll do it," McCrane held his servos out to grab the woman once Dumpson got his own servos out of the way. Once he did, however, the baby in her arms started squalling even louder.

McCrane just stood there helplessly, holding an unconscious woman in his cupped servos not knowing what to do about a screaming baby in said woman's arms except make sure he didn't drop either of them. "What do I do? WHAT DO I DO?"

Deckard and Dumpson looked at each other and shrugged; they've never handled human babies before, they were way out of their league.

The waitress smacked the side her head. "Geez, typical men. Talk to her, let her know you're not going to hurt her,"

McCrane hesitated before carefully shaking his servos to rock their occupants to try to soothe the crying infant like he had seen someone do on one of those soap operas Power Joe watches sometimes. "Shh, don't cry, little one. I'm not going to hurt you,"

The baby girl's screams quieted down to hiccupping sobs, like she was starting to calm down but still not happy about the situation at all.

Dumpson smiled as he looked at his brother. "Ah, you're good with kids. I'm definitely telling Seia about this,"

McCrane looked at him with a "Bring it!" look. "Not before I tell Ayako you were _afraid _of a screaming baby, of all things,"

Deckard got between the two brothers. "Not now, you guys. You can tattle on each other to the other's girlfriend later. Right now we've got more important things to deal with,"

He pointed up at Dragowan, who was fighting the others further down the street.

"Right,"

They all left the café, Deckard and Dumpson running over to help the others with Dragowan while McCrane brought the unconscious woman and her child to an ambulance that was further down the street with the waitress running alongside.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

_Meanwhile_

Yuuta sat at his desk, tapping his pencil against his chin as he tried to come up with the answer for the next math problem. '_Of all the times for a surprise math test!'_

He jumped when someone tapped on the window and turned to look, along with everyone else, to see who it was.

Since their classroom was on the second floor, Yuuta thought it was Power Joe and prepared himself to get between the mech and his teacher, Miss Meiko, so the two wouldn't fight again.

To his surprise however, it was Shadowmaru at the window.

Miss Meiko turned and was about to tell the mech to leave but he looked at her and politely said. "I'm sorry to interrupt, Meiko-_sensei, _but there's an emergency in the city. Alright if we borrow the Boss for a little bit?"

Miss Meiko looked at him then at Yuuta then sighed in defeat as she looked back at Shadowmaru and nodded. "Alright," she turned to shake a finger at Yuuta. "But you _will _finish your exam on your own time, understood?"

Yuuta stood up and nodded. "Yes, ma'am!" he started to run to the door but Shadowmaru reached through the open window.

"This way is faster, Little Boss,"

Yuuta hesitated before going over to climb up to the window and into Shadowmaru's waiting servo. "What exactly is going on, Shadowmaru?"

Shadowmaru lifted Yuuta out of the classroom window and said nonchalantly. "Oh, you know. Giant monster attacking the city. Gotta go beat it and find out whose monster it is so we can arrest them. Business as usual,"

He jogged a few steps to get further away from the school before launching himself into the air and transforming into his jet mode around Yuuta and flying away.

The other students crowded around the window to watch.

"Wow!"

"So cool!"

"Yuuta's lucky, gets to get out of class to be with the Brave Police,"

Miss Meiko shooed the kids away from the windows and back to their desks. "Finish your tests or I'll have to keep you after class!"

* * *

><p><em><strong>A.N.: Comments, questions, suggestions and predictions welcome. Any flames will be dealt with accordingly.<strong>_


	7. Chapter 7

More Human Than Human

"Talking"

'_thoughts'_

"_Recordings, talking on the phone or singing"_

"_Speaking another language besides Japanese"_

:Talking through the comm. links:

Rated T for language and anything else I might have missed.

Disclaimer: I own nothing but my O.C.s, Starts after the events in "The Masked Brave, Dumpson" and goes from there with a few twists.

* * *

><p><em>Meanwhile <em>

The other Brave police fought against Dragowan as best they could as smaller, separate units until they could combine into a few larger units to counter the giant monster they were fighting.

Drill Boy and Gunmax Armor were flying around it like a pair of hornets and firing on it from above while the others did what they could with their guns from the ground.

It was more irritating the beast than anything by playing 'tag' with it but they had managed to contain it in a general area where it had limited mobility and couldn't escape further into the city.

Deckard fired off shots at Dragowan as he dove behind the crumbling wall that McCrane was using as cover while he reloaded his gun and did the same.

As he did so, Deckard checked to see just how much ammunition he had left. "Damn, I've only got one more round of ammo after this one,"

McCrane reached into a compartment in his leg and took out a few clips of revolver ammo. "Here, I rarely use my side arm anyway,"

Deckard looked at it for a moment before taking it. "Thanks," he stowed it in a compartment in his hip. "I hope Yuuta gets here soon. If we don't 'Brave up' soon…"

McCrane aimed his shotgun and fired a shot at one of Dragowan's wings but hit its shoulder instead when the creature moved to swat at Drill Boy as he flew by. "Shadowmaru went to get him because he's faster than the rest of us and so we're all here and ready to go in the event Yuuta tries to give the unification command from a distance like he did when Drill Boy first joined us,"

Deckard grabbed McCrane and pulled him out from behind the crumbling wall just before Dragowan came crashing through it. "Good call, now if they could just get here…"

Then they all jumped when a beeping sound only audible to them hit their audio receivers like a dog whistle.

"Yeah, he's doing it from a distance again," McCrane looked around to locate his brothers. "Alright, guys, time to link up!"

"Roger that!"

"About damn time!"

"LOOK OUT BELOW!"

Dumpson and Power Joe ran over to meet McCrane halfway while Drill Boy just transformed in mid-air and dropped down to land amongst of them as they all merged into Super Build Tiger.

Deckard looked up at Super Build Tiger as the combiner tackled Dragowan and tried to put the creature into some kind of wrestling hold that he didn't know the name of and then looked around. "… And J-Roader isn't here yet,"

Gunmax Armor flew over to him and hovered upside down so their helms were level. "Still think it's a good idea to let a kid have so much control over you?"

Deckard swung at the Motorcycle Detective who flipped himself right side up to get out of his reach. "Gunmax…"

Gunmax Armor shook a digit at him. "Hey, hey, I thought I told you your punches don't work on me,"

Deckard growled as Gunmax flew away to give Super Build Tiger some cover fire before taking out his gun and doing the same until he could hear jet engines overhead. He looked up to locate the source of the engines and saw Shadowmaru flying up to do a strafing run on Dragowan.

"Sorry we're late, had to stop and pick something up,"

Deckard looked around at the sound of familiar sirens approaching and smiled. "I'd say you're right on time," he turned and ran down the street to meet J-Roader halfway so he could link up with the support vehicle and form J-Decker.

Yuuta jumped out of the S.W.A.T. truck and took out his badge. "Deckard!"

"I know!" He sent a data burst to J-Roader to establish a remote control link with it so he could get it to follow him as he ran along-side it to get closer to the fight to help.

Yuuta sent him the unification command and he "Braved Up" into J-Decker, still running into the battle as J-Decker to tackle Dragowan and help Super Build Tiger wrestle it to the ground.

This worked for a while until Dragowan breathed fire on them to get them to let go and smashed through a building to get to another street.

Shadowmaru gained altitude to locate the creature and saw it limping away. He quickly calculated its trajectory and the others. :He's heading for the marina!:

"Copy that!" J-Decker picked up Yuuta and placed the boy in his cab before taking to the skies with Super Build Tiger and the whole team followed Dragowan from the air to try to box it in again.

However, this street was wider than the other one had been and Dragowan, having more room to maneuver, climbed up the side of the building until it was above the other buildings.

Super Build Tiger scoffed. "What does this thing think it is, King Kong?"

But then, with a mighty beat of its wings, Dragowan launched itself into the air and flew above the city to continue heading in the direction it had before without any buildings to get in the way.

Yuuta gawked at the creature as he looked out J-Decker's windshield with wide eyes. "It… It flies too?"

Dragowan roared as it flew away at higher speeds than any of them expected a winged creature of that size would be capable of.

Yuuta pointed at it and shouted. "After it! We can't let it destroy the city!"

"On it, Boss!"

The Brave Police flew after Dragowan until they reached the wharf where the creature turned its attention downward, as though looking for something.

"Is it just me or is that thing slowing down?" Power Joe's voice came from Super Build Tiger.

Then Dragowan turned around and released another jet of flame in their direction, forcing them to scatter to avoid being hit. When it cleared they resumed their pursuit of the creature and then noticed Power Joe had a point.

"Yeah, it's definitely slowing down. Watch out!" J-Decker covered the windshield on his chest so the flames wouldn't go through it and get to Yuuta when the dragon started to release another bout of flames from its maw, only this time it spluttered out before it got far.

With a demonic screech, Dragowan fell from the sky and crashed through the ground in the middle of a seaside fish market.

Yuuta uncovered his head and tried to peer between J-Decker's digits as he removed his servos. "Uh, what just happened?"

Shadowmaru transformed to hover in robot mode. "Looks like it ran out of fire; and from the looks of things whatever gave it the ability to breathe fire also gave it the lift it needed to fly,"

J-Decker looked down at the creature that was now climbing to its feet and shaking off the debris that had covered it when it landed. "Alright, so it can't fly or breathe fire. Which means it's only options now would be to run away on the ground or to use brute strength to fight,"

Yuuta gripped his seat; he had a feeling things were going to get rough. "See if you guys can trap it like you did before so we can capture it, or stop it,"

"Roger!" J-Decker started to dive down to make the arrest like he always did when they had the villain cornered but Super Build Tiger stopped him.

"Wait, look," Super Build Tiger pointed down and they saw Dragowan sniffing around, looking for something, until it found the open displays of fish and seafood and started eating; chomping the catch of the day by the crate, while it was still inside said crates.

"It's… eating?"

Dumpson's voice came from Super Build Tiger this time. "Not exactly the best time and place for a snack break,"

The others all flew into a flanking formation and dropped down to surround Dragowan in an attempt to pen it in.

But then Dragowan saw movement out the corner of its eye as it was about to snap up a box of flounder and looked over to see J-Decker moving up towards its head while Super Build Tiger came up on its flank.

Gunmax Armor appeared next to it on the other side from J-Decker and pressed a gun to the back of its head. "Snack time's over, big fella,"

J-Decker saw Dragowan's pupils narrow as it slowly turned its head around, growling. "Gunmax, don't…"

Like a crack of a whip, Dragowan's head turned around and seized Gunmax Armor in its jaws and clamped down on his midsection.

The Motorcycle Detective cried out as the sharp teeth pierced the armor that was formed by Gun Bike and his actual armor underneath started to give way under the crushing pressure of its jaws.

"Hey, Put me down you big scaly _piece of sh_—AHHH!" He beat his fist against its snout and tried to pry its jaws open but he couldn't get himself free and Dragowan only tightened its grip further so J-Decker lunged forward to help him while Super Build Tiger tried to hold it still.

Dragowan paid them only enough mind to lift Gunmax Armor out of J-Decker's reach and off handedly bat Shadowmaru away with its tail and kick Super Build Tiger like a mule as it carried Gunmax Armor away like a new toy it didn't want to share with anyone.

Shadowmaru pushed a couple of crates of fish off of him as pulled himself out of an open sided fish stand he had landed in. Rubbing his now sore neck—and briefly wondering if robots could get whiplash—he tracked the trajectory of Dragowan's course.

Now seeing Dragowan's plan, he called out to the others. "He's heading for the water,"

They heard an exclamation of "_SHIT!" _coming from Gunmax's general direction as they sprang into action.

Power Joe's voice came from Super Build Tiger again. "I say we just let it eat him,"

The rest of the Build Team scolded their team mate and Super Build Tiger shuddered like it was going to fall apart but was able to hold together.

Yuuta was also appalled. "Guys, come on, we can't just let it eat Gunmax,"

J-Decker nodded. "Yuuta is right, Gunmax might be a rude, overconfident jerk that says weird phrases in bad English sometimes but he's one of us,"

He rand after Dragowan and Shadowmaru added. "Which means he's _our_ rude, overconfident jerk that says weird phrases in bad English sometimes,"

They all chased after Dragowan and Super Build Tiger tackled it while J-Decker put it in a head lock.

Unfortunately, due to the size difference, Super Build Tiger was just lying across Dragowan's back like a human on a horse.

Then Drill Boy's voice came from Super Build Tiger. "Pull on his wings, guys!"

Super Build Tiger grabbed the base of the dragon's wings and pulled until the dragon reared up and fell over with a shrieking roar.

McCrane's voice came from the Build Team combiner next. "How did you know that would work?"

Drill Boy again "Because sometimes you guys pull on my wings and it hurts, really bad,"

Dumpson's voice came next, he sounded guilty. "Sorry, buddy,"

While the Build team was having their momentary heart-to-heart, J-Decker and Shadowmaru tried to get Gunmax Armor out of the Dragowan's mouth, with J-Decker prying the jaws open while the Ninja Detective grabbed Gunmax Armor's servos to pull him out.

To their surprise, however, Dragowan suddenly dropped Gunmax Armor and started sniffing Shadowmaru as it got to its feet.

Seeing the creature's attention was now on him and its pupils were dilated, Shadowmaru put his servos up and backed away. "Nice dragon, _nice _dragon,"

Dragowan simply shrugged the other Brave Police off and followed him, sniffing him curiously.

Gunmax Armor laughed as he sat up slowly, wincing slightly as he did so. "_Aww, _it likes you,"

Shadowmaru made a face like he was trying to glare at Gunmax Armor but didn't want to take his optics off of Dragowan. "Not funny, Mr. Chew toy,"

Gunmax Armor's smirk went away, replaced by a scowl.

Yuuta, on the other hand, tried to figure out what was going on. "Why is he just sniffing Shadowmaru?" then he looked at the crates of fish that were scattered about. "Shadowmaru, weren't you just thrown into a pile of fish just now?"

"Yeah, why do you ask?"

Yuuta pointed at the partially demolished fish market, even though no one could see him. "Dragowan came here looking for fish, maybe he smells it on Shadowmaru and is looking for it,"

Everyone considered this for a moment and Shadowmaru sniffed his arm-servo, wrinkling his olfactory ridge in disgust.

"Phew! Yeah, he smells it alright," then he realized he smelled like something the giant dragon monster was just eating and started running backwards. "No, no, I'm not a fish, I'm not a fish!"

Dragowan just purred and followed him even when he jumped to the side to try to lose the dragon. So, J-Decker suggested. "See if you can lure it away from a populated area,"

The Ninja Detective gave him a bemused look. "Are we taking turns being bait now?"

Super Build Tiger chuckled so Shadowmaru pointed up at him without looking. "Don't laugh, you're next,"

So, Shadowmaru slowly walked backwards, leading the curious and hungry dragon along, with J-Decker and Super Build Tiger on either side in case Dragowan tried to make a break for it and Gunmax Armor brought up the rear as their little parade made its way to an abandoned side of the wharf.

Everything was going fine until a fishing boat came into the harbor; the wind that brought the little sail boat in also carried the smell of their fresh catch right to Dragowan.

The dragon stopped and sniffed the air, the purple robot that smelled of old fish forgotten; there was a live and fresh catch nearby, lots of it, and Dragowan wanted it.

Before any of the Brave Police could react, the creature bounded to the water line and dove right in.

"NO!" They all ran to the nearest pier and scanned the water for signs of Dragowan.

"Anyone see him?"

Super Build Tiger shook his helm. "No, but I really hope this one doesn't turn into a sea monster like Gawan did. I _really _hope it doesn't,"

"Found it!" Shadowmaru pointed at the water.

"Where?" Everyone else scanned the water where Shadowmaru was pointing but his scanners were able to pick up things that theirs couldn't so they couldn't see what he was seeing.

J-Decker looked at the Ninja Detective. "Which way is he heading?"

"Right… towards that boat that just came in," Shadowmaru scanned the boat and scowled. "Crap, it's a fishing boat, full of fresh catch. That must be what it's after,"

"We've got to warn them!" Yuuta grabbed the mouth piece for Deckard's public address system and shouted into it. "_Attention…_ um…"

Yuuta hesitated; he couldn't see the name of the boat painted on the side of it so he didn't know who he was warning.

J-Decker zoomed in with his optics on the side of the fishing boat and told him. "It's the 'MiBonny',"

Yuuta nodded and continued. "_Attention, crew of the MiBonny, this is the Brave Police! You are in a restricted area. Please leave or there will be trouble! I repeat, Please leave the area or there will be trouble!"_

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_Meanwhile, aboard the _MiBonny.

One of the fishermen in the crew of a dozen went over to the Captain and tapped him on the shoulder. "Captain, there's something going on at shore,"

The Captain took out a pair of binoculars and looked to see the giant robots known as the Brave Police standing on the pier. "The Brave Police? I wonder what's going on there,"

"Listen…" both men listened and heard someone calling out to them; however they were still too far out to hear it clearly over the waves so part of what whatever they were saying was lost.

The only reason they knew it was aimed at them was because they could make out "…_crew of the MiBonny….P…lice….. leave the area…"_

The Captain looked at his crewman. "Sounds like a kid, what's he saying?"

The crewmember shrugged. "Sounds like he's saying 'Leave the area!',"

The Captain scoffed. "Like I'm going to listen to some kid, I'm going to go see what the hell is going on that the frickin' _Brave Police_ are snooping about,"

It was no secret amongst the crew that the Captain was one of the people that didn't like the Brave Police; someone had brought a portable radio on board so they could listen to music on the trip but when a news report about the Brave Police came on the Captain got angry and threw the radio overboard.

Just then a giant reptilian creature burst out of the water at crashed into the side of the boat, making it rock and buck violently as though it itself had become a giant beast that wished to throw its occupants overboard to the other monster waiting in the surf.

The men aboard the boat screamed as they grabbed onto the closest thing they could to steady themselves and when the creature went back into the water they scrambled to secure their nets so they wouldn't lose their catch.

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"Too late," The Brave Police saw Dragowan attack the fishing boat and quickly mobilized.

J-Decker and Super Build Tiger took to the air, intent on dropping down on Dragowan from above, while Shadowmaru transformed into jet mode and flew to the boat to get the crewmembers.

Gunmax Armor ran along the pier to try to take off as well but skidded to a stop inches away from the edge when his wing turbines wouldn't activate.

"_What the actual fuck?" _ He reached behind himself and felt around until he found the problem; one of his wings were bent and crumpled from when Dragowan chomped down on him, rendering that wing useless and him incapable of flight. "Dammit!"

J-Decker noticed Gunmax Armor wasn't with them and looked back to see the mech running to the next pier over. He called the mech's comm. link. :Gumax, what are you doing?:

There was a ping followed by Gunmax's response. :Wing's busted, can't fly. I'll do what I can from the shore.:

J-Decker hesitated before nodding. :Alright, good luck.:

Gunmax laughed at that. :I'm not the one that's gonna need luck, _Patoka.:_

J-Decker turned and continued his original flight path and Super Build Tiger looked at him. "What's Gunmax doing now?"

J-Decker took out J-Buster and fired a few shots at the water to try to draw out Dragowan. "Gunmax's wings were damaged when Dragowan was chewing on him. He's going to see what he can do from the shore,"

"Okay… there it is!"

"Banzai!" The two mechs dropped down as Dragowan came out of the water and all three went back under water as they tackled it away from the ship.

Shadowmaru landed carefully on the ship and looked at the crewmembers. "Drop the nets and head to shore, now,"

The Captain roughly pushed his way towards the front. "We can't just toss our catch overboard!"

Shadowmaru looked down at the Captain with cold green optics. "That creature in the water isn't after you, it's after the fish. It's your catch or your lives, your choice,"

The crew members looked at each other before the Captain nodded to the men. "Cut half the nets,"

While the men got out knives and scrambled to hang half the nets aboard the ship over the water so they could cut them loose, the Captain looked up at Shadowmaru. "Hopefully, that will keep the beast busy long enough for us to make port and get out of here, but a man has to make a living,"

He pointed to the nets of fish they were saving to get his point across; the fish was how the fishermen made their living and without it they had nothing.

Shadowmaru nodded; understanding but not seeing why the men were putting a few nets of _fish _ahead of their own well-being. They could always catch more, couldn't they?

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_Meanwhile_

J-Decker and Super Build Tiger fought Dragowan at the bottom of the bay, the water was just deep enough for the creature to swim—using its wings as oars as it kicked and paddled with its legs—and it was easily over their helms so they used their underwater propulsion systems to "swim" as well.

J-Decker opened a comm. link channel with Super Build Tiger so they could talk to eachother under water as he dodged a swipe from Dragowan's tail. :We have to stop this thing before someone gets hurt!:

Drill Boy's voice came through the line. :How did you guys stop Gawan before? Maybe we can do it again.:

Yuuta could hear the whole conversation on J-Decker's radio and answered on the C.V. radio. "McCrane fired a shot through the… venti-thingy they used to get me and Mr. Onoue out of Gawan and it blew him to smithereens! It was actually kind of cool,"

McCrane's voice came next. :Ventilator, and I'm afraid we don't have one handy right at this moment.:

Just then Dragowan kicked off the bottom of the bay and launched itself straight up to shoot out of the water right next to the boat and grabbed a net that was being hung over the side, grabbing on to it.

The men scrambled for purchase as the boat tipped almost completely to the side, some were able to grab onto something to hang on to but quite a few ended up in the water.

Shadowmaru drew one of his swords and held the net steady with his other servo as he cut the net free so Dragowan wouldn't drag the whole boat down along with it and the boat quickly fell back into place.

Unfortunately, the sudden motion of the boat had knocked Shadowmaru off balance and his servo got tangled in the net, resulting in him being pulled over board and into the water when Dragowan sank below the surface.

The Ninja Detective cursed inwardly as he tried to cut himself loose. For a brief moment however, he swore he could almost hear Kagero chastising him for his foolishness.

_*flashback*_

_The two brothers were in the sparring ring again. Usually they pitted the two of them against each other for a match at least once a day but they had already had a session that day and now they were being put through another one._

_On their way into the ring, Kagero had mumbled something about how the higher ups that supervised these matches were probably just bored and wanted some sort of entertainment._

_This second match, however, resulted in Shadowmaru being pinned to the floor with one of Kagero's swords through his servo._

_The elder brother hissed at his brother under his vents._ '_Shadowmaru, pay attention! You're going to get yourself killed one of these days,'_

_The green mech the sword out and placed it in Shadowmaru's injured palm before pulling him to his peds with his good servo._

_He never did take his sword back—it was a spare he kept on him as an extra weapon to surprise his opponents with—and he let Shadowmaru use it when the humans in charge of the match told them to resume fighting until they said to stop._

_*End Flashback*_

Shadowmaru glanced at the sword he was now wielding; it was the same sword Kagero had given him that day and it was also the sword he had run him through with when he was forced to kill him in a fight to the death when Kagero was on an out-of-control rampage in the city.

Tightening his grip on the sword, he slashed the last of the cords holding him to the net and let himself drift away from Dragowan as the creature swam away.

The Ninja Detective sheathed his sword and watched the dragon swim away with its prize before shifting into his wolf mode—he could swim better in that form than he could in robot mode—and followed it.

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><p><em><strong>A.N.: Comments, questions and predictions welcome. This story is un-Betaed, if you see a mistake feel free to point it out and I'll fix it as soon as I can. Any flames will be dealt with accordingly.<strong>_


	8. Chapter 8

More Human Than Human

"Talking"

'_thoughts'_

"_Recordings, talking on the phone or singing"_

"_Speaking another language besides Japanese"_

:Talking through the comm. links:

Rated T for language, mentions of suicidal thoughts and anything else I might have missed.

Disclaimer: I own nothing but my O.C.s, Starts after the events in "The Masked Brave, Dumpson" and goes from there with a few twists.

* * *

><p>Gunmax Armor ran along the edge of the bay to try to cut Dragowan off if it tried to leave the harbor so they could corral it in.<p>

As he circled around to the other side of the boat, Dragowan leapt out of the water and grabbed something out of the boat. The Motorcycle Detective looked over and saw it was one of the fishing nets on the boat.

Another thing he noticed was that Shadowmaru was pulled out of the boat along with the net. "Shit…"

Gunmax Armor opened a comm. channel with the others. :Hey, guys, Shadowmaru just got pulled under along with the fishing net Dragowan just snagged. I repeat, the dog is in the net… and fishnets really aren't a good look on him.: he added the last part with a smirk.

J-Decker and Super Build Tiger looked up at the boat then at Dragowan and then each other.

"Did you see him?"

J-Decker shook his helm. "No, the rest of the net was in the way,"

Super Build Tiger looked at him in disbelief. "Really?" he held out his servos towards Dragowan. "Because the whole _dragon _was in our way!"

Yuuta cut in before everyone could start arguing. "Guys, let's just find him and stop Dragowan. The boat is heading back to shore so the fishermen are safe …"

Gunmax Armor told the others. :I'll make sure everyone gets off the boat in one piece.:

Everyone's comm. links buzzed and Shadowmaru's voice came through. :And be sure to arrest them for obstruction of justice. They didn't leave the area and kept the fish and drew Dragowan right to them, despite being told to leave the area and _not _keep the fish for that very reason.:

Yuuta grabbed the radio mouth piece and practically yelled into it. "Shadowmaru, you okay?"

The Ninja Detective chuckled. :You mean you doubted me? That hurts, O little ye of little faith.:

J-Decker asked "Gunmax said you got dragged under, Need an assist?"

:Nope, already cut the net. I'm going to follow Dragowan to see where he's going.:

J-Decker looked around to try to locate either Dragowan or Shadowmaru but both had already left the marina. :Wait, Shadowmaru...:

The call cut off and everyone looked at each other. J-Decker waved his servo in a "follow me" gesture. "Come on, let's go give him some back up,"

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Shadowmaru just ignored J-Decker and disconnected the communiqué as he watched Dragowan swim away.

'_If they catch up they catch up, but if I wait too long I will lose the trail,' _he swam after the dragon.

After a while, Shadowmaru got a ping from J-Decker's frequency and answered the call. :Yes?:

Yuuta's voice came through. :Shadowmaru, head back to the Decker Room. Azuma just called and wants everyone at the precinct right now, he sounded mad.:

'_When isn't he mad when he talks to us?'_ Instead of voicing his train of thought he said. "But what about Dragowan?"

Yuuta sighed. :I guess we're just going to have to hope he doesn't cause any more trouble until we find him again.:

Shadowmaru looked at Dragowan as the dragon swam away and weighed his options; go back to the Decker room and get yelled at by the Co-Commissioner or just pretend the pompous windbag doesn't exist for a little while and continue with the mission.

After a moment of consideration, Shadowmaru responded. "I'm pretty far out right now, you guys go on ahead, I'll catch up,"

:Okay, see you there.: the call ended.

Shadowmaru looked around to make sure no one was around to see him and kept swimming. '_I never said I was going to head back RIGHT AWAY…'_

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_Back on shore_

Gunmax Armor leaned against a boathouse with his arm-servos crossed as he waited on the pier for the others. He looked up as Super Build Tiger and J-Decker came trudging out of the water.

Super Build Tiger huffed as he stepped on shore. "I can't believe Azuma is calling us back in the middle of a pursuit of a dangerous giant monster," the combiner split apart into the Build Team and they all marched up to the road to transform into vehicle mode.

Gunmax Armor snorted. "And probably to yell at us for not catching it and the mess we made while trying to,"

J-Decker looked down at the Motorcycle Detective. "Were you waiting for us or are you just going to hang around here all day?"

Gunmax Armor smirked at him and rapped his knuckles against his chest. "If this thing would come off I would have hit the road already, but as it turns out I can't fly and I can't drive so what difference does it make?"

J-Decker thought for a moment before picking the mech up in his servos.

Gunmax Armor looked around and struggled. "Hey, what are you doing? Put me down, _Patoka!"_

J-Decker looked down at him in a manner that hinted that he was smiling behind his mask. "Giving you a lift back to the precinct for the meeting, wouldn't want you to miss something important,"

Gunmax Armor gave up struggling since J-decker placed his thumb digits over his waist like the safety restraints on a roller coaster and crossed his arm-servos. "He's probably going to give us the same crap he always does…" He changed his voice so it was deeper yet screechy to mock Azuma.

"'You walking scrap piles need to be more careful. Look at all the damage you caused! Do you have _any _idea how long it will take to fix this mess or how much it will cost? And did you catch that thing? _What?_ Why not?',"

Yuuta snickered behind his hands at the impersonation so Deckard tilted his seat forward to pat him on the back to get him to stop and saying. "Come on, Gunmax, Azuma's … talks aren't exactly a picnic but we still need to go,"

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_Back at the Decker Room_

"YOU WALKING SCRAP PILES NEED TO BE MORE CAREFUL!" Azuma's face changed between different shades of red and purple and back again as he yelled at the Brave Police who all—minus Shadowmaru, who was late getting back but insisted he _was_ coming back when Yuuta called him—stood at attention in front of him while Yuuta stood next to his desk.

"DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW MUCH DAMAGE YOU CAUSED? OR HOW LONG IT WILL TAKE TO FIX AND HOW MUCH IT WILL COST TO FIX IT?"

Gunmax opened a private channel with Deckard on their internal comm. links :Told ya.:

Azuma straightened up. "What is that status on the monster?"

Deckard stood straighter and answered. "I'm afraid we were unable to apprehend it, sir,"

Azuma's hair actually stood on end. "What? You mean it's still on the loose?"

Yuuta looked up at the Co-Commissioner. "We almost had it but you called us back and said we had to get back here right away before we could actually get it!"

Azuma turned on Yuuta. "Don't interrupt me, _boy," _Yuuta flinched and started to tell him he was just answering his question but Azuma looked back up at the Brave Police like Yuuta wasn't even there. "I want that thing…"

"Dragowan,"

They all turned to look at the Commissioner, who was standing behind Azuma and Yuuta with his arms crossed and his eyes closed. He opened his eyes and elaborated. "We are calling the creature 'Dragowan' for the records, since 'that thing that tried to destroy the city' could mean anything,"

Azuma glared at the man in disbelief and then looked at the Brave Police "I want '_Dragowan'…" _he said the name mockingly as he gave the Commissioner a pointed look and then looked back at the Brave Police. "…found and apprehended as soon as possible, before it attacks again,"

"Well, already have the 'found' part taken care of," they all looked down and saw Shadowmaru crawling through the "doggy door" in his wolf form. He transformed into robot mode and crossed his arm-servos. "I saw Dragowan crawl ashore on a small island off the coast before I turned back. We weakened it so it shouldn't be going anywhere anytime soon,"

Azuma glared at him like he wanted to yell at him but couldn't; not only couldn't he find a reason to yell at him but the Ninja Detective was staring him down.

After a moment, Azuma straightened his tie. "Which island?"

Shadowmaru went over to the mechs' computer and brought up a map of Japan and the surrounding area and projected it onto the monitor. "Right here," he zoomed in on a small island.

McCrane immediately recognized the island. "That's where the Defense Forces go for training retreats,"

Azuma frowned. "Which means it's out of our jurisdiction, we will need clearance before we can go there or there will be an incident,"

Everyone knew that was just more of the political B.S. he and the other Board Members were always throwing at them but held their tongues as Azuma became more business-like; business-like Azuma they could deal with, angry-Azuma was just an asshole they didn't want to deal with.

"I will see about getting you clearance to be on that island. See that this thing goes away and today's fiasco never happens again," The Co-Commissioner turned on his heel and walked out of the room.

As soon as he was gone everyone let out a sigh of relief and Dumpson waved his servo at the door. "Why does he always act like everything bad that happens in this town is our fault?"

McCrane didn't pay them any attention; he was still looking at the map projected at the monitor. "Shadowmaru, are you _sure _that's where you saw Dragowan go?"

Shadowmaru looked at the Combat Detective with uncertainty. "Yes, why do you ask?"

McCrane's optics widened. "Oh, this is bad,"

Deckard looked at him. "How so, McCrane?"

McCrane looked at him. "Seia was going out there with some new recruits for training sometime tomorrow. If we don't catch Dragowan by then it will be 'Gawan' all over again,"

Yuuta looked at the crane. "Call Seia and tell her what's going on. Even if it's too late to stop them from going at least Dragowan won't catch them by surprise when they get there,"

"Already on it, Boss," McCrane put a digit to his helm to activate his comm. link and stepped off to the side for some relative privacy as he called the Colonel's cell phone.

After three and a half rings, he heard Seia's voice "_Hello?"_

:Seia, it's McCrane.:

Seia paused for a moment and McCrane could hear her talking to someone in the back ground for a moment before talking to him again. "_Oh, McCrane, can this wait? I'm in the middle of coordinating our training retreat tomorrow,"_

McCrane winced. :That's…. uh… kind of why I'm calling. Would there be a chance you could postpone it? Or at least go to a different location this time?:

Seia hesitated before asking skeptically. "_Why, is something wrong?"_

:You heard about the giant monster incident in town earlier today?:

Seia laughed bitterly. "_Who _didn't _hear about it?"_

McCrane sighed :Well, the incident is still ongoing. The creature we were pursuing, designated 'Dragowan', was last seen on the island you were scheduled to have your training retreat.:

Seia gasped "_Need help catching it?"_

:Too soon to tell, I just wanted to make sure you weren't going to end up on a small island with a bunch of new recruits and a giant, fire-breathing, winged monster.:

Seia laughed. "Well, thanks for looking out for me, McCrane," then her tone changed. "Wait, did you say 'fire-breathing winged monster'?"

McCrane nodded :Yeah, picture Gawan only flight capable.:

Seia grumbled and McCrane could tell she was trying not to curse, then she said. "_Alright, I'll try to change either the time we go or the location. Let me know if you need help catching the monster, I promise we won't screw things up for you this time,"_

McCrane snorted. :You were just following orders, what happened with Gawan wasn't your fault.:

Seia sighed like she didn't believe him and said. "_I'd better go. Talk to you later,"_

:Alright:

There was a pause before Seia whispered into the phone "_I love you,"_

McCrane looked over his shoulder to see if anyone was listening—he had a sinking suspicion that was also why Seia had paused as well—and whispered back. "I love you too,"

After they had their quick whispered conversation—which his brothers did _not_ listen too… when he was looking—McCrane ended the call.

Drill Boy revealed their eavesdropping when he gasped and asked a little too loudly "Wait, did you just say 'I love you too'?"

McCrane tensed and quickly answered "No! I mean… no, no I didn't," he started to walk out of the room. "Clearly, you are all imagining things,"

Power Joe noticed his older brother was refusing to look at them and slyly asked. "So, how are things between you and the good Colonel anyway, McCrane,"

Shadowmaru offhandedly said with a smile on his lip components. "They're past their first kiss, I know that much,"

"How in the hell did you…" McCrane spun around, looking like he was about to throw something at the Ninja Detective but quickly regained his composure. "Ahem, what makes you say that, Shadowmaru?"

Shadowmaru turned to give him an "isn't it obvious?" look. "The Inti case; Miss Seia let Inti possess her so she could show you what her desires were so you wouldn't feel bad about having desires of your own. She ran into that mall and you followed her,"

He grinned, well, wolfishly. "You both came back out blushing and she had hamburger grease on her chin while you had it along with some of her lipstick smudged on your lip components,"

Now McCrane blushed as red as Dumpson's paint job as everyone sniggered at him while he quickly wiped his mouth like he was trying to make sure none of the stain Shadowmaru was talking about was left. "What? Why didn't anyone say anything until now?"

Dumpson shifted the light in his optics to mimic an eye roll. "We didn't notice, we _were_ kind of busy at the time,"

Gunmax smiled and slapped McCrane on the back plates. "Alright, McCrane! Way to not give a _fuck_ about a giant monster attacking the city while you make out with your girlfriend,"

McCrane shoved him away. "That is not what happened,"

Deckard spoke up to change the subject. "Speaking of giant monsters, we still have a dragon to catch on that island,"

Yuuta looked at Deckard and then everyone else, eager to get going. "Alright, let's go!"

Then Shadowmaru spoke up "How about you all unite here and fly there while I bring Little Boss back to school. That way you will get there faster and be ready to go and the Boss can get back to class,"

Yuuta gave the Ninja Detective a look of betrayal and he looked down at Yuuta with a "get mad all you want, you know I'm right" look. "That math test you were in the middle of sounded important,"

Yuuta looked up at Deckard pleadingly, hoping to convince him to let him stay with them until the case was completed.

Deckard wanted Yuuta to come along, he really did, but… "Shadowmaru has a point, Yuuta,"

Yuuta pouted; normally he and Deckard were on the same page about everything but right then he was pretty sure someone had moved the bookmark. "Why? Don't you guys want me there?"

Dumpson held up his servos "No, it's not that Boss,"

Power Joe nodded "We just don't want you to fall behind in school,"

Yuuta narrowed his eyes at the yellow mech. "Says the guy that interrupts class every chance he gets. By the way, you really need to quit stopping by to chat during school. If Miss Meiko sees you there again she'll probably call the cops,"

Power Joe huffed. "That lady is just mean. I think she has something against robots,"

Yuuta tilted his head. "She didn't have any problems when Shadowmaru was there,"

The Ninja Detective looked away as he started humming to himself, something that sounded suspiciously like "_She likes me better, she likes me better…"_

Power Joe bristled "Maybe she just likes _dogs!_"

Deckard stepped between the Kung Fu and Ninja Detectives. "Enough!" he looked at Power Joe. "Would you rather deal with Miss Meiko or a dragon?"

Power Joe's thought for a moment and said "There's a difference?"

Deckard ignored him and looked at Shadowmaru. "Think you could bring Yuuta back to school and meet us at the island?"

Shadowmaru mimicked an eye roll with his optics. "Pfft, I can have him there and be on my way to meet up with you by the time you get there,"

Deckard and the others frowned; they didn't doubt that Shadowmaru could but he didn't have to rub it in.

"All right, let's go,"

After everyone but Gunmax—who was staying behind to get repaired—went outside, Yuuta gave the unification command to unite the Build Team into Super Build Tiger and Deckard and J-Roader into J-Decker.

Before actually taking off, J-Decker looked down at Yuuta. "Good luck on your test, Yuuta,"

Super Build Tiger turned to look at him. "Yeah, don't mess up on it too badly,"

Yuuta pulled down his eyelid and blew a raspberry at the combiner mech, which just drew a laugh from all the mechs present and the two combiners took off.

As soon as they were gone, Yuuta sighed in defeat and turned to Shadowmaru who turned into his jet mode and opened the canopy to let him in. This surprised Yuuta; the only time Shadowmaru let him ride in his jet mode was if there was an emergency and they needed to get somewhere A.S.A.P.

'_Probably just wants to drop me off at school as fast as he can so he can get back in the action,' _Yuuta thought to himself as he climbed up into the hovering jet's cockpit and started to fasten his seat belt but a safety harness closed around him.

"Buckle up, Little Boss," Shadowmaru said in a glee filled tone as he took off and did a slow barrel roll as he flew over the nearby rooftops and into the blue sky above.

Despite his previous gloomy attitude, Yuuta gripped his seat and laughed. "Whoa, cool!"

Shadowmaru chuckled and straightened out. After a few minutes, Yuuta looked out the window, previous glumness returned.

"Something troubling you, Little Boss?"

Yuuta jumped and looked at the control panel, which he now felt like it was somehow watching him. "Huh? Oh, it's nothing, really," he looked at the window again.

The Ninja Detective sighed and said gently. "Boss, not only are you a terrible liar as it is I have lie detectors integrated into my audio receivers; don't think you can lie to me,"

Yuuta looked at the console where Shadowmaru's voice was coming from and hesitated; normally he has these kinds of talks with Deckard alone but at that moment Shadowmaru was giving off the same patient "I'm-right-here-if-you-need-me" vibe that Deckard always practically shone with.

Yuuta sighed as he leaned back "Sometimes… I don't know… Sometimes it feels like the only reason I'm even on the team with you guys is because the Commissioner gave me this…" he took out his badge. "…and you guys need it to combine. Well, you and Gunmax don't because um…"

Yuuta stopped talking, worried he had offended the Ninja Detective somehow by mentioning he was the only one on the team that couldn't combine with anyone else, but Shadowmaru just hummed to himself; had he been in robot or wolf mode he would have nodded.

Yuuta figured the mech wasn't going to say much else—Shadowmaru may be a know-it-all that always seemed to have a clever comeback for everything but he was still a quiet mech, mostly—and looked out the window again; silently marveling at the city below them.

After a few minutes of the not-so awkward silence, Shadowmaru spoke up hesitantly "Say, Boss…" Yuuta looked at the console so Shadowmaru continued. "Alright if we take a quick detour?"

Yuuta thought for a moment and asked innocently. "Why, is something wrong?"

"No, just wanted to show you something," One thing that never changed about Shadowmaru, no matter what mood he was in, was that he always had an aura of mystery about him; like he always had something to hide or wanted everyone to guess.

A little concerned about what this "something" might be—Yuuta didn't know all of the things Shadowmaru got himself into when he was on solo missions or during his spare time but he knew the mech's servos weren't exactly clean because of it—but not wanting to go back to school just yet, Yuuta shrugged. "Okay,"

Shadowmaru changed direction to go to another part of town; they were still heading in the general direction of the school but they were veering slightly off course.

Yuuta leaned back in the seat and tightened his grip on the arm rests as the jet tilted as he turned. "Where we going anyway?"

"Oh, you'll see…" Shadowmaru picked up speed until he was careening through the air like an arrow.

When he finally slowed down, Shadowmaru carefully descended to land in the street next to the university—mindful of the students, professors and other pedestrians that scattered in his wake—and let Yuuta out.

Yuuta looked around and realized they were close to where he lived. "Why here?"

Shadowmaru looked around and took a deep intake of air which he let out in a sigh. "Remember when I left after Kagero…" he couldn't bring himself to say the words; _after I killed my brother because some madman took control of his body._

Yuuta looked up at the Ninja and nodded as he sat on a nearby bench. "Yeah, we were going to go after you and bring you back to make sure you were alright but Mr. Toudou said you would come back eventually when you got hungry and needed fuel,"

Shadowmaru smiled, he had thrown a wrench in that plan quite spectacularly. "This was where I was when the 'low fuel warning' started beeping," he sat on the ground next to the bench Yuuta was on with his servos strewn across his lap as he slumped tiredly. "But I kept going,"

Yuuta looked at him. "Why didn't you come back?"

Shadowmaru looked at the ground and darkened his optics. "Because by that point… I wanted to die,"

Yuuta gasped and he clenched his fists and jumped up. "No!"

Shadowmaru looked at him and held up his servos in a placating manner. "Calm down, Little Boss, I'm still here, aren't I?" Yuuta calmed down somewhat and Shadowmaru tilted his helm to the side with a slight smile. "I have you to thank for that,"

Yuuta looked up at him and pointed at himself. "Me?"

Shadowmaru nodded. "Yes, you… well, you and your sister. I came here first because the place where Kagero and I were built was nearby but there were too many witnesses who would have ratted me out to the rest of you so I just wandered around aimlessly until I got tired and found a shady spot in someone's back yard,"

Yuuta looked up at him as he sat back down. "So that's how you ended up at our house,"

Shadowmaru laughed. "Yeah, as sheer dumb luck would have it, that back yard happened to be yours. Bottom line is, Azuki distracted me from my suicidal tendencies but _you, _Little Boss, gave me hope to keep going,"

Yuuta rubbed his neck "Ah, it was nothing,"

Shadowmaru gently tapped his digit against the top of Yuuta's head in a mock-scolding. "Let me finish,"

Yuuta rubbed his head and sat up straighter as he looked up at Shadowmaru.

"Deckard became sentient because of you, you helped convince the Board of Directors that the Build Team needed minds of their own to be able to function as a unit, you saved me from myself, you helped Drill Boy realize that not everything is about him and now he's not a…"

The Ninja Detective thought for a moment and shrugged "Well, he's not a _complete _childish jerk anymore,"

Yuuta spoke up in defense of his friend and teammate "Hey, Drill Boy is not a jerk!"

Shadowmaru waved him off. "Speaking of childish jerks, you also saved Gunmax in the Hourglass and you held off Azuma until we were able to prove his innocence when they were going to decommission him for crimes he didn't commit,"

The mech leaned down so he was looking Yuuta square in the eye. "We are alive because of you, Boss, and you have been practically one of us from the beginning. So if _anyone_ ever tells you you're just on the team because of your badge you tell us,"

Shadowmaru grinned as he cracked his mechanical knuckles. "I don't know about the others but say the word and those jerks will be eating those words as their last meal,"

Yuuta was touched by the fact that the Brave Police would go so far for him—although he would do the same for them—but he held up his hands. "I don't know, I don't want you to get in trouble,"

Shadowmaru smiled "Can't get in trouble if I don't get caught," then he remembered what they were supposed to be doing and stood up. "Speaking of getting in trouble, I'd better get you back to school before someone realizes you're not back yet,"

Yuuta hopped off the bench. "And you need to get back and help the others catch Dragowan,"

"Yeah, and make sure Dragowan doesn't catch _them _instead," Shadowmaru picked Yuuta up and transformed into jet mode _around _him as he took off and flew away.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

_Minutes later_

The whole classroom jumped when they heard jet engines right outside and then suddenly Shadowmaru was hanging upside down outside their class room window and passing Yuuta through the open window.

"Sorry for the disturbance, have a nice day! See you after class, Little Boss," the Ninja Detective dropped down to land in a crouch on the ground, transformed into wolf mode and loped away.

Yuuta staggered over to his desk and sat down. "Sorry, Miss Meiko, is it too late to finish my test?"

Miss Meiko looked stunned by the boy's sudden arrival but set his test on his desk. "You are not leaving until it is done, is that clear?"

"Yes ma'am," Yuuta said breathlessly and winced as he sat forward to see his paper.

Emily leaned over to whisper to Yuuta. "Are you okay, Yuuta?"

Yuuta rubbed his abdomen. "I think I lost my stomach somewhere over main street. Shadowmaru broke the sound barrier at least three times on the way here,"

Masaki overheard them and leaned forward, wanting to hear more. "Cool!"

Miss Meiko swatted Yuuta's desk with a yard stick. "No talking, Yuuta is still taking his test and you all have classwork to do,"

All the children turned their attention to their desks and Miss Meiko went to sit at hers to grade the tests that had already been turned in.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

After school, everyone filed out of the classrooms and outside, eager for a few hours freedom.

Yuuta walked along with his friends, who almost immediately started questioning him.

"So, what was going on in town that… um, what's the purple one's name again?"

Yuuta looked at Kikumaro. "Shadowmaru,"

The other boy nodded "Yeah him, what was so important that he had to get you out of class?"

Yuuta looked up at the sky, wishing he was still helping the Brave Police instead of just now getting out of class. "A dragon was attacking the city,"

Emily gasped. "A dragon, a real live dragon?"

Yuuta nodded. "Yeah, we chased it onto an island where it can't hurt anybody but then Mr. Azuma called us back to yell at us for making a mess during the fight. Everyone else went to the island to finish off Dragowan, that's what we're calling the dragon, while Shadowmaru dropped me off at school,"

Masaki scoffed. "That's lame, couldn't you have just told them 'no'? You're their Boss, aren't you?"

Yuuta sighed. "Yeah but I still need to go to school. And if Shadowmaru didn't bring me back when he did then Power Joe would bring me to school later and he'd get us all in trouble,"

Kikumaro remembered something and pushed his glasses further up his nose. "Speaking of Power Joe, he said we could come meet the new robots after school, didn't he?"

Emily smiled and clung to Yuuta's arm as she jumped up and down. "Please, can we come with you? _Pleease_?"

Yuuta tried to pull his arm out of the girl's grip. "Cut it out, Emily. Alright, I'll ask if you can come to the precinct to see them,"

The other three kids cheered and he shushed them. "But if Mr. Toudou or any of the other technicians say we can't be there you'll have to leave… and you can't tell anyone; I still don't know if we're actually supposed to tell anyone yet,"

Emily pouted "You told your sisters about them. Why can't you tell us?"

Yuuta face palmed. "I am telling you. I just don't think everyone in town should know about them yet because every time we get someone new someone tries to steal them or just destroy them,"

Kikumaro nodded "He's got a point,"

As they walked, Yuuta took out his badge to check on Deckard. "Deckard?"

After a moment Deckard's voice came through the comm. link in the badge. :Yuuta?:

The mech sounded "out of breath" but otherwise alright and Yuuta let out a sigh of relief. "Everyone okay?"

Super Build Tiger's voice came next :I think Shadowmaru got the wrong island, we've searched this whole place and haven't found a thing!:

Then they heard him say :Whoa, shit!: and they heard a muffled crash in the background. "What happened?" Yuuta practically shouted.

Shadowmaru's voice came next. :Super Build Tiger tripped on a net. The fishing net that Dragowan stole.: he added the last part smugly.

After a moment, Super Build Tiger growled. :Not. One. Word.:

Yuuta rolled his eyes and asked. "Want me to come over there and help look?"

J-Decker answered him. :No, we've got this… but if we're not back by the time Gunmax is repaired have him bring you with him. Tell him I said so or else, he'll know what the 'or else' will be if he doesn't.:

He added the last part darkly and everyone wondered just what the "or else" was but then decided they didn't want to know. "Okay, you guys be careful out there,"

:Roger, Boss!:

Yuuta ended the call and resumed walking with the other three kids. "Come on, I'll introduce you guys to the American bots while we wait for Gunmax,"

Masaki pointed at him "Hey, I don't remember actually meeting this 'Gunmax' guy either,"

Yuuta looked at him "Yes you did,"

Emily pointed at Yuuta. "Nuh-uh, we've _seen _him but we haven't actually _met _him yet,"

Yuuta thought about it for a moment and sighed; Power Joe always ran interference whenever his three friends looked like they were getting too close to the temperamental Motorcycle Detective so they never actually introduced themselves.

"Okay, fine, just don't get mad at him if he says or does something you don't like. He has a bit of an attitude,"

The other three nodded and said. "Okay,"

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><p><em><strong>A.N.: Quick shout out to the people that reviewed andor added; tamersten.**_

_**Comments, questions, suggestions and predictions are welcome; any flames will be dealt with accordingly. At this point this story is has no Beta, if you see any mistakes I apologize, just let me know and I will fix them right away.**_


	9. Chapter 9

`More Human Than Human

"Talking"

'_thoughts'_

"_Recordings, talking on the phone or singing"_

"_Speaking another language besides Japanese"_

:Talking through the comm. links:

Rated T for language, mentions of suicidal thoughts and anything else I might have missed.

Disclaimer: I own nothing but my O.C.s, Starts after the events in "The Masked Brave, Dumpson" and goes from there with a few twists.

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><p><em>Meanwhile, in the Maintenance Bay at the precinct<em>

Gunmax stood in the maintenance cradle he had been placed in, bored out of his processors and just itching to get out of there.

Since it wasn't _his _cradle—he didn't actually have one at the Decker Room Maintenance bay because everyone assumed he had his own somewhere else when he was working with the Highway Patrol—he occupied himself by trying to figure out who it did belong to.

Drill Boy's? Gunmax checked behind it and found nothing there; he knew the kid always had a soccer ball or two stashed behind his cradle so it wasn't his.

McCrane's? He checked behind it again and checked the sides for concealed weapons since—despite being a pacifist—the Combat Detective always seemed to have some sort of weapon within reach at all times.

He found none so he checked for something else that McCrane might hide in his cradle; bridal magazines. Gunmax had no idea what McCrane wanted with those but the fact that Yuuta had been buying and smuggling them into the Decker Room for McCrane was one of the worst kept secrets in the Brave Police. He didn't find any anyways, so what did it matter?

Since there were no weapons hidden in the cradle, Gunmax figured it was safe to assume it wasn't Power Joe's either; the Kung Fu Detective was even more "weapon obsessed" than McCrane so it was no small guess that the mech would want weapons within easy reach at all times.

That left Shadowmaru, Deckard and Dumpson. In a last ditch effort, Gunmax looked to make sure no one was watching and sniffed the padding on the maintenance cradle.

It didn't smell like diesel exhaust so that ruled out Dumpson; the mech always wreaked of it, especially if he was worked up over something and his smokestacks puffed more than usual.

"What was that huge sigh for?"

Gunmax looked down and saw the Chief looking up at him and realized he had been caught sniffing the maintenance cradle but the man thought it was just a depressed sigh since he had just let his helm loll to the side for it.

Gunmax let his upper body slump forward and moaned dramatically. "I'm bored, let me out,"

Chief Toudou snorted and gave him a wry smile "If you're going to make it a habit of ending up here for repairs I'll have to ask Deckard if he's okay with you stashing reading material in his maintenance cradle so you don't get bored,"

The man turned around to look at a monitor one of the technicians was showing him and Gunmax looked over the maintenance cradle he was in. _Deckard's cradle._

He then realized that the padding was stiff, like it hadn't been used in a long time, which would make sense if Deckard recharged at the Tomonaga's and only used the cradle when he needed repairs.

Then he realized that, by all intents and purposes, he was currently in Deckard's "bed" and since the Police Detective was the one that put him in here…

Gunmax grinned; he was _never _going to let Deckard live this one down and he was still giving him a hard time about the time he handcuffed them together by dropping the occasional handcuff themed innuendo but _this…_

Gunmax cried out when the armor formed by Gun Bike was pried away from his frame. One of the technicians looked up at him apologetically. "Sorry,"

Gunmax took a deep intake of air and let it out in a _whoosh_. "Don't be, that thing was pressing in on me like a corset. Glad to have it off for a while," he looked down at the pieces of armor that the technicians were taking apart to repair and put in back together as a motorcycle.

"So how long is it going to take to get fixed? _Yow!_" he jumped when a welder connected with the seams on the side of his chassis.

Chief Toudou frowned up at him. "Trust me, you're going to be in here for a while,"

Gunmax sighed but perked up curiously when his comm. link beeped at him. He checked the frequency and saw that it was Deckard. Curious, he answered the call. :Yeah?:

:Gunmax, how is everything going on your end?:

Gunmax smirked. :I'm tied to your bed waiting for you to come home, how do you think I'm doing?:

He heard shouting in the background and some strange noises that sounded like a crash on the other end of the comm. line. :Deckard, you ok?:

:Yeah, I… ahem, didn't see that fallen tree right away and tripped.:

Gunmax heard the disgruntled tone in the other mech's voice and did a quick triumphant fist pump; he knew why Deckard didn't see the fallen tree in time to evade it… if there ever was a tree to begin with.

The Motorcycle Detective tried to keep the satisfied glee out of his voice as he said. :Yeah, well Chief says I'm going to be in here a while. Sorry.:

Deckard sighed. :Alright, if Chief does let you out before we come back, could you bring Yuuta out here with you?:

Gunmax was somewhat confused by this; he couldn't remember a time when the boy _wasn't _with them on missions. But then he remembered Shadowmaru brought Yuuta back to school to finish some test.

He would bring the boy with him if he did ever get out there but he wanted to draw out the conversation. :I dunno…:

Deckard's tone became serious as he told him what he told Yuuta, only he actually told Gunmax what the "or else" was.

The technicians were surprised when Gunmax's cooling fan's kicked on and he blushed; none of them knew why and immediately assumed something went wrong but he waved them off when they started to get flustered.

:Alright, alright, I'll bring the kid if I ever get out there, sheesh:

:Thank you.: The call ended, leaving Gunmax alone with him thoughts and the technicians working to fix him.

A few minutes later Yuuta came in and looked up at Gunmax. "Hey, Gunmax, how are you doing?"

Gunmax shrugged. "Sorry, kiddo, but unless the guys plan on camping out on that island overnight it looks like we're stuck waiting for them to get back,"

Yuuta looked disappointed but smiled. "Oh, okay. Have you heard anything from the others?"

Gunmax shrugged, ignoring the way that the technician that was working on his shoulder cursed under his breath at being jostled by the motion, and said "Deckard called a few minutes ago, he said if I do get out of here in time to meet up with the others I'm supposed to take you with me 'or else'," he make air quotes with his digits on the "Or else"

Yuuta nodded "Yeah, he said the same thing when I talked to him on my way here,"

Gunmax stared at him and looked around before asking "He didn't tell you what the 'or else' was, did he?"

Yuuta shook his head "No,"

"Good," Gunmax said in a clipped tone and looked up when he heard something fall on the floor over by the entrance and saw three kids around Yuuta's age snooping about. "_Yo! _What are you kids doing here?"

Emily, Masaki and Kikumaro jumped when they heard someone shouting at them and Yuuta turned to look at them and trotted over to them. "Guys, I told you to wait outside until I asked Mr. Toudou if it was ok if you guys came in here,"

Masaki waved him off "Ah, c'mon, Yuuta. It's not like we're going to break anything,"

Kikumaro saw the technicians trying to fix Gun Bike. "Whoa, what happened there?"

Gunmax looked at the boy. "Dragon tried to frickin' eat me and my bike,"

Emily saw Gunmax and went over to stand in front of him, smiling up at him sweetly. "Hi, I'm Emily. What's your name?"

"Emily?" Gunmax thought for a moment then slapped the side of his helm. "_Oh God,_ you're one of Power Joe's little fan club, aren't ya?'

Emily glared at him and puffed up her cheeks in a pout. "There's no need to be rude,"

Gunmax smirked at her and played innocent. "Me, rude? I'm not rude, I'm Gunmax,"

Emily turned on her heel and stomped back over to where the other kids were. "When you said he had an attitude, Yuuta, you never said he was mean,"

Yuuta spluttered for a moment and shushed the girl to get her to stop before she actually made Gunmax mad but the mech looked at him and feigned hurt. "Boss, you told them I had an _attitude _but you didn't bother to tell them who the hell I am?"

He looked at the other three kids. "By the way, Power Joe isn't here so you three might as well leave," Gunmax made a shooing motion with his servo. "Go on, scamper on back to _Munchkin Land," _

Masaki shook his fist at him "Hey, we're not…"

"Whoa…" they all looked at Kikumaro who was looking up at the American Brave Police bots. "Are these the new robots you were talking about?"

"Yeah, they're the new guys," The kids all looked up and saw Chief Toudou standing next to them with his arms crossed, looking up at the American Braves. He looked down at the other three kids and at Yuuta. "Although Yuuta didn't tell me he was bringing the rest of you here to meet them,"

Emily and Kikumaro smiled sheepishly and Masaki spoke up. "Actually, Power Joe said he was going to bring us over to meet them after school but…"

Yuuta cut in. "That was before we got called away to deal with Dragowan so they came to work with me. I told them to wait until I asked if it was okay with you but…"

Chief Toudou waved him off. "It's fine. Just don't announce it to the world until they're ready to be indicted,"

They all went back to looking over the American B.P.s. Predictably, Emily went right up to the femme. "Wow, she's pretty," she put her hands on her hips smugly. "About time they got a girl on the team, there was getting to be too many boy robots,"

"Hey, I resemble and resent that remark!" Gunmax called over. "And I'm telling Power Joe you said it too,"

Emily turned and stuck her tongue out at him. "Go ahead, Gun_meanie!_"

Masaki looked up at Chief Toudou. "So when are you going to start them up?"

Chief Toudou ran his fingers through his hair as he scratched his head. "See, that's where we're stuck. We can power them up but they don't seem to 'wake up' if you know what I mean,"

Yuuta looked up at the man. "When Shadowmaru and Power Joe were at the school earlier they said she…" he pointed up at the femme. "…had wandered off,"

Toudou looked up at the femme. "Yeah, the guys got her walking but it was more like she was sleep walking than anything," he realized what Yuuta just said and looked at him. "Wait, when were Shadowmaru and Power Joe at your school?"

Yuuta rubbed the back of his head. "Oh, actually Power Joe was the one that stopped by and Shadowmaru stopped to make sure he didn't get in trouble again while he was looking for her,"

"Do they have names yet?" Kikumaro was the one to ask.

Chief Toudou sighed. "Not actual names, for now the mech is 'B.P. 101' and the femme is 'B.P. 201',"

Masaki looked up at him with a smile. "Need help coming up with names?" he, Emily and Kikumaro looked up at Chief Toudou hopefully.

Yuuta waved his hands to get their attention. "Guys, how about we wait until they actually wake up and they can pick their own names like the Build Team did?"

Chief Toudou nodded "My thoughts exactly," he thought for a moment. "Actually, the only ones that didn't pick their names were Deckard and Drill Boy,"

All four children looked up at him. "Really?"

Chief Toudou nodded. "Yeah, Shadowmaru was originally going to be named 'Cerberus' after the hound with many heads that guarded the gates of hell but while we were coming up for a name for Kagero since we waited until we met them to give them names he said 'Shadowmaru… call me Shadowmaru,'. So we changed it,"

He looked over his shoulder at Gunmax. "And Gunmax…"

Gunmax called over. "Hey, hey, I told you I'm not going to answer to that name. If I hear it again I'm leaving!"

Chief Toudou turned around. "Good luck with that, you're strapped down and your bike is in pieces,"

Gunmax huffed and looked away and Chief Toudou whispered to the kids. "In all honesty, I don't even remember what we were going to call him before he woke up and said 'It better be something cool or I quit!'"

Emily giggled and Masaki looked at Yuuta. "Well, now what?"

Yuuta shrugged. "We could go to the Decker Room and wait for everyone else to get back,"

Kikumaro's eyes widened in realization. "Hey, that's right. We've never actually been in the Decker Room before, we saw it on when you guys were on T.V. but we've never seen it in real life,"

"Come on, let's go," Yuuta lead his friends into the actual precinct building and down the hall to the stairwell that would take them to the second floor where the door to the human section of the Decker room was.

While they were walking on the stairwell, Yuuta stopped and closed his eyes as he leaned against the handrail.

"What's wrong Yuuta?"

Yuuta looked up. "My stomach still kind of hurts,"

Emily put a hand on his shoulder. "Maybe you should go home until you feel better,"

Yuuta shook his head and kept walking. "No, I'm okay. I need to write that report from earlier anyway," then he remembered something and face palmed. "Darn it, I still need to write the report for when we were in Domingo Republic too,"

Masaki folded his arms behind his head as they walked. "Geez, do you guys really need to write reports every time you do something?"

Yuuta nodded. "Yeah, so the guys on the Board of Directors know what's going on… or else they'll just make stuff up about us and say we're the ones destroying the city,"

Kikumaro gasped. "But that's not true! You guys are the ones saving the city,"

Yuuta nodded. "Yeah but after all the giant robots that attacked the city, one of them being Shadowmaru's big brother because some bad guys took control over him, they think that the Brave Police might turn evil. If they get enough people to vote against us the guys will be… decommissioned,"

Emily looked concerned. "Decommissioned? As in fire them?

Masaki smiled and pointed at himself. "Hey, no sweat, if Power Joe wants to, he can work for me,"

Kikumaro shook his head. "No, stupid, they're robots. 'Decommissioned' as in…" he slowly pulled a finger across his throat and made a squelching sound with his mouth.

The other two gasped.

"No!"

"They can't!"

Yuuta looked at them. "They can and will if we give them half a reason to. They almost had Gunmax destroyed because they thought he was going around blowing stuff up but it turned out someone that he used to work with that did it and photoshopped a picture of Gunmax over the machine he used to make it look like Gunmax did it,"

Masaki scoffed "That sucks, why would he do that?"

"Deckard said Gunmax found out his old partner was doing illegal stuff on the side and when he lost his job because someone else ratted him out he thought Gunmax was the one that told on him. He wanted to get back at Gunmax by making him look like a criminal so we would want to get rid of him," Yuuta smiled. "Good thing we believed Gunmax and not the fake looking pictures or he and Deckard would have both been killed,"

Kikumaro looked at him. "Wait, how did Deckard get involved in that?"

"He handcuffed Gunmax to himself and wouldn't let him go until he told Deckard the truth. Deckard was with him when his old partner decided he was just going to take Gunmax out himself instead of waiting for us to do it,"

They made it to the second floor and found their way to the door that said "Decker Room" in brass letters. "Well, here we are," Yuuta let his friends into the room and they all went inside.

As soon as they were inside Masaki, Emily and Kikumaro went to the edge of the platform to see the whole room.

"Whoa, cool,"

"It's even bigger than how it looked on T.V."

Yuuta pulled out his chair and sat at his desk to fill out reports. Kikumaro looked at him. "Is that your desk?"

Yuuta rolled his eyes. "No, it's Deckard's desk. Don't tell him I'm sitting at it," it was quite obvious that the human sized desk was Yuuta's but the four of them couldn't help but picture how silly the mech would look trying to work at it.

Emily bounced up and down. "Eee, I'm so jealous, Yuuta. You get to come here every day and work with the Brave Police!"

Masaki poked her. "Ah, you wouldn't last five minutes. I'm not even sure how Yuuta does it,"

Yuuta didn't even look up. "You wouldn't last ten minutes doing all the paperwork we have to do, you'd lose your temper with Gunmax and maybe Drill Boy too,"

Masaki looked at him. "Are you saying we couldn't do your job as good as you?"

Yuuta threw up his arms and said. "You guys didn't even remember Shadowmaru's name, for crying out loud,"

He let his hands fall on the desk and laced his fingers like he'd seen adults do when they talk to him from behind a desk. "Deckard and the others are like the big brothers I never had, and every day I go out with them to fight some monster or catch some bad guy only to see them get hurt, sometimes almost killed, and when we get back I'm left wondering 'What if that shot hadn't just grazed him?' 'What if they had been closer to that bomb that went off?'"

Yuuta saw that they were starting to see his point and started using actual examples of the missions they had been on.

"What if Deckard and the others actually killed each other like those crazy clown scientists asked them to after they took me hostage? What if the Build Team didn't find us in time when those robot thieves shot up Deckard and then were going to shoot me and my family? What if we weren't able to stop those giant bugs from destroying Drill Boy while he was being built? What if the fight between Shadowmaru and Kagero ended differently and they both ended up dead? What if we weren't able to save Gunmax when he was slated for termination or when he was going to be melted down in the Hourglass?"

Yuuta had tears in his eyes as he looked at them. "You think all of this is so damn cool? Let's see you do it?" he stood up and stepped away from his chair to see if any of them dared to sit in it.

They all stood there not saying a word for what felt like hours until Yuuta's badge beeped, letting him know one of the Braves was calling him, and he took it out to answer the call. "Guys?"

Deckard's calm voice came through the comm. link. :Yuuta, we're on our way back now. At the rate we're going we should be back in a few minutes.:

Yuuta smiled. "Alright, I'll be right out to help you guys get out of your united forms," he ignored the others as he started to run out the door until Masaki asked. "Hey, alright if we come with?"

Yuuta's smile disappeared as he stopped. "Fine, Power Joe will probably want to see you guys when he finds out you're here,"

The kids all ran back downstairs, through the maintenance bay and outside to watch the sky until J-Decker, Super Build Tiger and Shadowmaru flew into view and landed.

As soon as Super Build Tiger landed he knelt down and Power Joe's voice came out his vocalizer. "Hey guys, when did you get here?"

The three kids said in unison. "Same time Yuuta did,"

Yuuta himself pressed the button on his badge that reversed the unification code and Super Build Tiger broke apart into the Build Team and Deckard separated from J-Roader.

As soon as he was free, Power Joe knelt in front of his friends. "So, what have you guys been up to?"

Kikumaro quickly recounted what they did. "Came back with Yuuta, we met Gunmax…"

Emily scoffed "More like Gun-meanie,"

Kikumaro continued. "…and we saw the new robots but they haven't been activated yet so we didn't actually get to meet them,"

Power Joe sighed. "Kind of figured that would happen," he changed his tone to mock-scolding as he shook his digit at them. "And didn't I tell you he was a jack…"

Deckard glared at Power Joe and actually scolded him. "Power Joe, remember what we talked about earlier?"

Power Joe slumped and slowly stood up. "Yeah, yeah, 'rude, sarcastic idiot is _our_ rude sarcastic idiot',"

The kids all laughed and everyone went inside. The kids went back up to the second floor to go back to the human partition of it while the mechs used their entrance from the maintenance bay.

When the kids got there Yuuta went back to his desk and while Masaki, Kikumaro and Emily sat on the edge of the platform, the girl's legs swinging back and forth in the air while the boys sat still.

Deckard was the last one in the room since he stopped to check on Gunmax and ask Chief Toudou if he had made any progress with the American B.P.s; Gunmax would be fine as soon as they pop out all the dents—although it would take a little longer to fix Gun Bike—and no, there hadn't been any changes with the American bots since they had left.

When the Police Detective sat at his desk he smiled at the four children. "So, how was your test?"

There were a few mumbles of "It was ok" "Fine" and other such responses.

The Brave Police could tell right away that something was up and Dumpson asked "Alright, what's going on, you four?"

The kids all said "Nothing!" a little too quickly.

Drill Boy looked at them. "Did you guys get in a fight?"

Masaki looked at him defensively. "What makes you think there was a fight?"

The orange mech pointed at Yuuta "Because Boss has the same look on his face that Deckard gets when he and Gunmax get into fights… and those two fight a lot,"

Yuuta and Deckard both jumped at this revelation and said. "Do not!"

Then everyone looked at Yuuta and the boy said. "It's nothing really," he smiled and tried to change the subject. "So, you guys find anything?"

Power Joe leaned back in his chair and folded his servos behind his helm. "A whole lot of nothing,"

Suddenly a thick and brown whip-like object struck Power Joe across his face and chest, making him yelp and fall backwards out of his chair.

Shadowmaru pulled back the "whip" he had just used on the Kung Fu Detective and unrolled it to reveal a fish net. "You call this nothing?"

Deckard looked at Shadowmaru. "Shadowmaru, quit hitting people with evidence," he looked at Power Joe. "And we didn't just find nothing…" he looked at Yuuta. "We found the net that Dragowan stole but not Dragowan,"

McCrane cut in. "We did find some tracks on the beach and by a river but there was no pattern to them to help us figure out a trail. Either it finished eating the fish and left the island while we were back here or it found a really good hiding place that we can't get to,"

Yuuta nodded. "We'll just have to keep looking. Anyone say where it might have come from?"

Shadowmaru looked up from folding the net back up. "The Commissioner said a group of police men had located the hideout of Dr. Madoh, the scientist that created Gawan. From the sound of things they were in the process of trying to apprehend him when either he sicked the dragon on them so he could get away or they just stumbled across it by chance and accidently set it free,"

Yuuta nodded. "Okay, Shadowmaru, I want you to go there and see if Dr. Madoh's new hide out has anything we can use to catch Dragowan stashed there,"

The mech smiled as he tossed the now folded net onto the desk, somehow doing so without it getting messed up again, and stood up to lean against his side of the desk. "Already planned on it,"

Yuuta looked at McCrane. "Heard back from Seia yet on whether or not they're still going there tomorrow?"

McCrane sighed and shook his helm. "Nothing since I called her earlier. She did say she was going to change either the time, location or both for the training retreat but I'm not sure which one she'll be able to rearrange on such short notice,"

"I think you guys are forgetting something here," they all looked up and saw Gunmax enter the room, trying to disguise his recently acquired limp as a cocky strut.

Deckard frowned. "Shouldn't you still be getting repaired?"

Gunmax smirked as he went to sit at his desk, or rather _on _his desk. "I'm repaired alright, wish I could say the same for Gun Bike," he became serious. "_Anyhoo, _like I was saying, there's one important thing you guys are missing here,"

Deckard raised an optic ridge. "And that would be…"

Gunmax looked around for something. "Who's got the remote for the monitor?"

"Right here," Power Joe held it up.

Gunmax clapped his servos together and held them so that his palms faced out. "Pass it here,"

The Kung Fu detective did and Gunmax caught it in one servo. "_Yoink!" _he pointed it at the monitor on the wall and turned it on.

Everyone else turned in their seats as he brought up a map and zoomed in on the section of the coast that the island where Dragowan was supposed to have been.

"While you guys were going deep sea diving to find the dragon I made sure the fishermen got off the boat okay. I didn't get to arrest them like you wanted, _doggie…" _Gunmax glanced at Shadowmaru then looked back at the monitor.

"But I did ask them a few questions. Turns out your little island there is in the middle of a high traffic trade route and fishing ground," the map Gunmax had brought up was then highlighted by blue shaded areas and yellow spots.

"The little blue areas are the fishing grounds used by commercial fishermen and the yellow ones is a trade route between us and Australia and all those little islands around it,"

Everyone groaned as the realized what this would most likely mean. "That's a lot of fishing boats," Drill Boy pointed out.

Dumpson nodded. "And now every last one of them is a target if Dragowan is going to go after them like he did the one in the bay,"

Deckard looked at each of the others in turn. "All the more reason to find him and stop him, right?"

"Right!"

Yuuta nodded. "Alright then, any further discussion?"

Everyone shook their helms and Deckard said "Not on this matter,"

Yuuta nodded again. "Alright then, meeting adjourned,"

Masaki looked over at Yuuta. "If all the meetings are like that I don't see what you were whining about earlier,"

Yuuta glared at him. "I was not whining. You guys wanted to know what it was like working here and I told you,"

"Yuuta…"

Yuuta stiffened when he heard Deckard say his name in the same tone of voice his sisters used when he was in big trouble and slowly turned around to look at the mech.

Deckard frowned at him and said in a "Don't-you-dare-lie-to-me" tone. "You wouldn't happen to have been _lying _when you said you four _didn't_ have a fight earlier, would you?"

Yuuta looked down at the floor. "Well, it wasn't an actual fight but…"

Emily took one look at the way all the mechs were looking at them and blurted out. "Yuuta showed us around when we got here and I said it would be cool to work here every day. Then Masaki said 'You wouldn't last five minutes. I'm not even sure how Yuuta does it,' Then Yuuta got upset and told us about all the stuff you guys put up with and all the times you guys got hurt really bad or almost died and that we wouldn't be able to handle it either and…"

Power Joe saw that the girl was starting to get upset and went to stand by the platform the kids were on and put a servo on her back to calm her. "Hey, calm down. Yeah, it would be awesome if you guys could work here too, and we always turn out ok in the end, right?"

The girl sniffled and nodded and Power Joe looked at Masaki, upset with his friend and defensive of his other friend and boss. "And you said what, now?"

Shadowmaru met Yuuta's eyes and said in an ominous tone. "Just say the word, Little Boss…" he let the offer hang as he cracked his mechanical knuckles.

Drill Boy stood up to see what the Ninja Detective was doing. "Whoa, how do you do that?" he tried to crack his own knuckles but ended up just squeezing his fist.

Yuuta pointed at Shadowmaru. "Shadowmaru, no, don't even think about it,"

He held up his servos in a "Who, me? I'm not doing anything," gesture before transforming into his wolf mode and trotting out his little side door.

Power Joe scoffed "Yeah, you better run, Dog,"

A ceiling tile over Power Joe's head slid aside and a purple arm-servo appeared in the gap left behind and threw a ninja star at Power Joe's helm.

Power Joe rubbed the back of his helm. "Ow, what the hell?"

"Wolf, not dog," Shadowmaru put the ceiling tile back into place and was gone.

Power Joe looked up at the ceiling tile and then at the doggie door and back again. "How did…"

Dumpson leaned back to look at the ceiling and then leaned forward again as he whispered. "Anyone ever figure out how he gets up there?"

Drill Boy leaned between them. "Aren't you guys the ones that built this place? How do you not know where all the ins and outs are?"

McCrane pushed his younger brother's helm down and held him there, indifferent as he struggled. "I'm not certain but maybe the extra-large ventilation ducts we installed to get the exhaust fumes out of here might give him enough room to crawl through,"

Ignoring the Build Teams' quiet conversation for now, Deckard looked at Yuuta and crossed his arm-servos "Care to explain what that was about?"

Yuuta bit his lip and gripped his knees. "Um, later," he looked up at the others and held up his fist determinedly. "Alright, guys, we've got a dragon to catch so let's go,"

Everyone nodded. "Roger, Boss!"

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><p><em><strong>A.N.: Comments, suggestions and questions welcome. Any flames will be dealt with accordingly.<strong>_


	10. Chapter 10

More Human Than Human

"Talking"

'_thoughts'_

"_Recordings, talking on the phone or singing"_

"_Speaking another language besides Japanese"_

:Talking through the comm. links:

Rated T for language and anything else I might have missed.

Disclaimer: I own nothing but my O.C.s, Starts after the events in "The Masked Brave, Dumpson" and goes from there with a few twists. This chapter also has a brief mention of the AMC series "The Walking Dead".

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><p>After speaking with the Commissioner, Shadowmaru went to where Dragowan first appeared; a big two story house that was close to where they fought the creature.<p>

It seemed like a nice house—simple, yet decent—and it seemed innocent enough… except for the fact that a bio-scientist and his assistant were trying to play God and create monsters in the basement; this made evident by the big gaping hole in the ground where what appeared to have been a cellar door used to be.

Shadowmaru peered inside and saw the messy aftermath of Dragowan's departure; bodies and debris strewn everywhere, broken and left for the clean-up crew that was currently trying to pick through the rubble for their fallen comrades.

"Shadowmaru?"

The mech turned at the sound of a familiar voice saying his name and saw Seia walking up to him. He smiled at her. "Colonel Onoue, what brings you here?"

Seia looked at the pit that was once a cellar sadly. "Helping with recovery detail, a lot of good men didn't make it out when Dragowan left here, we're here to help get them out and search for survivors in this mess," she looked back up at the Ninja Detective. "You?"

Shadowmaru crouched down so he was more on her level and to get a better look inside the cellar. "Well, while everyone else is out searching an island off the coast for Dragowan, I was tasked with searching the monster's birthplace for any clues on where it might hit next and how to stop it,"

He spotted a computer tucked in the back of the room. "Anyone check that over yet?"

Seia looked to see where he was pointing and shook her head at him. "No, but someone from the police will be coming by in about an hour or so to confiscate it,"

Shdowmaru frowned. "By 'confiscate' you mean haul it out of here and lock it up without doing anything else with it? For all we know it could contain valuable intel, like if Dr. Madoh was working on any more of his 'pets',"

Seia considered for a moment before whispering. "If you stay out of the way of the recovery efforts I can let you look it over until the repo men come to pick it up,"

Shadowmaru looked at the computer and then at her and nodded. "Deal,"

He slid down into the cellar—which had just enough head room for him to stand up and walk normally—and carefully made his way to the back of the room, looking through his peripheral vision at the broken bodies of the police men strewn about like dolls in a child's messy room as he tried not to step on them or the people trying to get them out.

As Shadowmaru passed a few men that were digging through a pile of debris to see if anyone was underneath it, he heard one of them say "Why do they need to look at the wack job's research? Can't they just find the damn thing and kill it already?"

The other search-and-rescue worker scoffed. "They're just robots that need to be told what to do and some dumbass put a little kid in charge of them,"

Shadowmaru stopped walking and looked at them. '_Oh, they did NOT just go there…"_

Shadowmaru crouched down and leaned forward so he was leaning over the men and said in a tone that was forced cheerfulness with a threatening under tone. "If you think it's so easy, let's see you do it,"

The men stopped talking and turned around to see that they had just insulted the Brave Police with one of said Brave Police right behind them and froze.

The three of them stared at each other for a moment before Shadowmaru said "By the way, the guys you are looking for are further back behind that shelving unit that got knocked over,"

The men looked where he had pointed and the one that had spoken second crawled over to look while the first looked up at him skeptically. "How do you know?"

Shadowmaru smiled. "My sensors are picking up fresh blood from their injuries as well as their breathing and heartbeats," he became serious. "By the sound of things one of them is having trouble breathing, you had better get him out before he suffocates,"

The man looked at him one last time before moving to help his co-worker move a piece of debris out of the way so they could peer into a small gap between the large metal shelving unit and the wall.

Sure enough, there was an unconscious younger man pinned between the shelves and the wall and they could see the arms of another man and the leg of yet another sticking out from under it.

The second man called the paramedics over. "Hey, we've got three more men under here!"

The first man looked back up at Shadowmaru only to see he wasn't there anymore. "What the… where did he go now?" he looked around and saw Shadowmaru tinkering with the huge computer terminal in the far back corner of the room.

While the humans scrambled about to excavate their fallen from the rubble, Shadowmaru hacked into the computer and searched through its contents for anything on Dr. Madoh's work, preferably his work on Dragowan.

After making sure there were no immediate threats, like "trip wires" or planted viruses, Shadowmaru withdrew a hacking cable from his wrist and plugged it into the computer and overrode all the passcodes to get to what he came for; the data log files.

Turned out there was a whole library of files that were labeled by code words, meaning he would have to open and go through each individual one… after he made sure none of the files were booby-trapped.

After a few minutes, Seia came up to him. "Find anything yet?"

"So far, so good," Shadowmaru took out a disk that he had brought with him and put it into the disk drive so he could save a copy of the computer's data. "Most computerized systems have security measures that range between 'wet paper bag' and 'vacuum sealed and iron clad'. I might as well be playing 'solitaire' on this thing, it's only security feature is a pop up window that appears every once in a while,"

There was a ding and a prompt asking for a passcode popped up on the screen.

"Ah, speak of the devil," Shadowmaru remotely entered in the passcode he had found when he had first hacked the computer and hit "Enter" with a flourish; luckily the keys were just big enough for him to carefully push with the tips of his digits.

The Colonel looked at the mech and then at the computer before walking away. "Alright, let me know if you need help,"

"Likewise," Shadowmaru waved over his shoulder absently as he focused on his work, deciding to look through some of the information while he waited for all of it to download.

After running a safety check on it, Shadowmaru opened a file labeled 'Dragonfire' since it looked like it might pertain to Dragowan and in a way it did; it said how Dr. Madoh was able to make Gawan and Dragowan able to breathe fire—by giving them a third "lung" that stored hydrogen that would ignite the air around it when the fire-breathing reptile belched it out.

This hydrogen also gave Dragowan the added lift it needed to fly.

'_So, my hunch from earlier was correct,' _The Ninja Detective read further and found that, according to the data, Dragowan's stomach contained a special bacteria that released the hydrogen to be stored in the third "lung" as it broke down the food that the beast ate.

'_And it needs to refuel to get its fire and flight capabilities back. Wait, all that fish it ate…' _Shadowmaru's optics brightened. "Oh no…"

He saved the computer's entire software onto his disk for later viewing and ran out as soon as he unhooked himself from the computer and placed the disk in a slot in his arm.

The men looked up from their work as he sprinted past them and one of them called out. "Hey, where's the fire?"

Shadowmaru called back over his shoulder. "Wherever Dragowan shows up next, gotta go find it before that happens,"

On his way out he passed a group of men getting out of a truck that he figured was the repo men coming to get the larger pieces of evidence from the crime scene. "Computer's all yours, boys, already copied everything on a disk. Bye!"

He got a running start outside and took off in his jet mode, rocketing off to find the others.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

_Meanwhile_

J-Decker and Yuuta circled the island to see if they could spot anything from the air while the rest of the Build Team had spilt up to search on the ground.

After about two hours Yuuta called the Build team. "Anyone find anything?"

Dumpson's response was a simple :Nope.:

Power grumbled before saying. :About the same as when we were here last time, NOTHING!:

McCrane answered last. :Sorry Boss, found some more tracks but they don't seem to lead anywhere.:

Yuuta sighed. "Okay… Drill Boy, anything on your end?"

The Soccer Detective was flying along the route that Gunmax had told them about to see if Dragowan had found any more fishing boats. :No dragon sightings yet, Boss.:

Yuuta rubbed his eyes and spoke into his badge again. "McCrane, you said you found some tracks?"

McCrane answered him calmly. :Yes, but I'm still trying to figure out if they actually lead anywhere.:

J-Decker scanned the area to locate the Combat Detective. "Well, unless Shadowmaru finds something that's pretty much the only lead we've got. Let's all regroup there and have a look around,"

:Roger.:

A few minutes later J-decker and Drill Boy landed in a clearing where McCrane was crouched down by a river, carefully running his digits over the sandy banks.

Power Joe and Dumpson came out of the forest on opposite sides of the clearing at a run.

"So where are these tracks you were talking about?" Power Joe asked before stopping in his tracks when McCrane threw a rock at his ped.

McCrane pivoted on his toes to turn and look at them. "You almost stepped on them,"

Power Joe lifted the ped that had been hit by the rock and looked down to see giant talon-foot prints in the dirt. "Oh, there they are,"

He carefully put his ped down while McCrane stood up and pointed down the river. "From the looks of it, Dragowan crawled onto the beach where we found the net, ate the fish inside and then returned to the water and swam up this river until it crawled ashore in this clearing. And if you would look at these tracks here…"

He waved a servo to indicate where the tracks were in the clearing. "…it looks like it ran a few steps but then the tracks end here," he ran around to show what Dragowan had most likely done and then stopped in his own tracks where the footprints ended.

McCrane shrugged. "After that… nothing,"

"GUYS!" Everyone looked up at the sudden shout and saw Shadowmaru flying overhead.

"Shadowmaru, did you find anything?" J-Decker asked as the Ninja detective transformed and slid to a stop on all fours on the ground.

Shaodwmaru dusted himself off as he stood up. "Something like that…" he looked at the tracks on the ground and after a few moments recognized the pattern. "Shit, we're too late,"

Dumpson looked at the mech. "Shadowmaru, language," then he realized what he had just said. "Wait, what do you mean 'we're too late'?"

Shadowmaru looked at him "Sorry, but I was kind of hoping we would have found Dragowan before it had gotten to this point,"

Yuuta looked at him. "What point? What do you mean?"

Shadowmaru went to stand next to McCrane and crouched to point out the last few tracks in the trail. "See how these footprints end in scrapes on the ground? That means the dragon was dragging its feet as it took off,"

Power Joe crossed his arm-servos and stood with his hip cocked to one side. "I thought the thing couldn't fly anymore,"

Shadowmaru turned to look at him. "Found out how Dragowan was able to breath fire; according the Dr. Madoh's computer, hydrogen taken from the food that Dragowan eats ignites the air when he breathes it out. The hydrogen also gives it added lift for when it flies,"

McCrane held his chin in thought. "And he burned through it all when he was fighting us so he couldn't fly so he swam out here, with a net full of fish after he raided a market,"

J-Decker saw what they were getting at. "And now that he's fueled up again he'll be able to fly,"

Dumpson brought his fist down on his leg. "No wonder we couldn't find him, we've been looking in all the wrong places!"

Drill Boy piped up. "Maybe if we search in the air we'll have better chances of seeing him,"

Power Joe put the shorter mech in a head lock and gave him a power noogie by vibrating his fist as he ground it against Drill Boy's helm. "Or maybe not,"

J-Decker stopped Power Joe. "No, Drill Boy has a point. We know Dragowan took off here but we don't know which direction he went after that or if he landed somewhere else after. If we're all in the air we'll have better chances of spotting him whether he's in the sky or on the ground,"

Power Joe let Drill Boy go and the Soccer Detective stuck his glossa out at his older brother as he sauntered off.

Yuuta took out his badge. "Build Team, you guys are going to have to unite into Build Tiger so you can fly. You're going to want to be Build Tiger when we find Dragowan anyway,"

A few minutes and several transformations later everyone was in the air, the four of them going in different directions to cover more ground.

They kept searching for several more hours until Yuuta called the others. "Guys, I think we should head back soon,"

Build Tiger's voice came through the comm. links :Shouldn't we keep looking for a little longer?:

Yuuta winced, feeling pangs in his stomach, and J-Decker asked him. "Something wrong, Yuuta?"

Yuuta frowned and told him why he had originally told them they should head back. "Deckard, your fuel light just started dinging and I'm sure the others are getting low on energy too,"

J-Decker checked his readings, he had been ignoring them in favor of focusing on what he was doing, and saw that the boy was right. "Yuuta has a point, guys. We need to refuel soon and it's going to be dark soon,"

Drill Boy giggled and said. :What's wrong Deckard, _afraid of the dark?: _He changed his tone to one most people would use to tell ghost stories.

J-Decker answered back calmly "No, we're just not allowed out after dark unless there is an emergency,"

:Well, I guess I just didn't get that memo.: Shadowmaru commented in a bitter-sweet tone; his cases usually had him disappearing for days on end, only coming back to report what he had found and only staying long enough to refuel before going back out again until he finished that case and was assigned another.

The Brave Police all turned around to head back to the precinct to refuel.

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When they got back they saw that the technicians were just about to finish up Gun Bike's repairs. Deckard looked over at them while he filled a fuel can with gasoline. "Whoa, you guys did a nice job fixing it in the amount of time we were gone. That's got to be a new record,"

He knew Gunmax was too prideful to thank the technicians himself—even though everyone knew that the Motorcycle Detective's support vehicle was the mech's pride and joy—so he made sure that the mechanics knew that their work was appreciated.

One of the mechanics wiped his forehead with his sleeve as he stepped out from under the giant bike. "Yeah, as often as he's been breaking this thing we've had plenty of practice fixing it,"

Deckard's smile saddened "Yeah, we've been trying to get him to stop playing so rough but…"

"I don't play well with others," Deckard looked over to see Gunmax leaning against the wall in the hallway leading to the Decker Room; since he couldn't fly or drive without Gun Bike, the mech had stayed behind to man the phones in case anyone called to report anything, preferably anything relating to Dragowan.

Deckard put the fuel nozzle away and put a cap on the fuel can, intending to drink it while he filled out his report. "Did you behave yourself while we were gone?"

Gunmax snorted. "No, I threw a wild party and we all trashed the place. I just barely managed to chase everyone out before the rest of them walked in," he pointed down the hall to indicate the direction the Build Team and Shadowmaru had gone.

Deckard rolled his optics, somewhat used to the mech's sarcasm after having to put up with him for so long. "I'll have Shadowmaru check the security cameras so we can track down your fellow party-goers and have them help you clean up the mess then,"

Gunmax scoffed. "You're no fun,"

The two mechs fell into step with each other as they walked into the Decker Room and Gunmax asked. "So, did you guys get to slay the dragon while you were out there?"

Deckard sighed. "Didn't even find it yet. We assumed it was still stuck on the ground because it had to resort to swimming away but Shadowmaru found out that once Dragowan eats something it can fly and breathe fire again,"

Gunmax looked at him in disbelief. "_You're shitting me!_ We're back to square one again?"

Deckard nodded. "Afraid so," he sat at his desk to fill out his report, or rather _reports_ since he still needed to write one for the initial attack earlier that day. To his surprise however, Gunmax sat on his desk so that he was facing him. "What the… Gunmax, don't you have something better to do than…"

The mech grinned. "Than to annoy you? _Hell no,"_

Deckard pushed the other mech away so that he wasn't leaning so close. "Go write your own report,"

Gunmax pushed Deckard's servo away and used his arm-servo to balance himself. "Already did while you guys were out,"

Deckard huffed and glared down at his paper as he wrote on it, pressing down on his pen with more force than necessary, until he felt someone poke him.

"Hey, Deckard,"

Deckard kept his focus on his desk. '_Just ignore him…'_

Poke. "Hey, Deckard,"

Deckard pressed even harder on his pen. '_Don't rise to the bait, you have work to do…'_

This time the offending digit poked him and pressed on the side of his helm so it tipped to the side. "Decka-a-ard…."

"WHAT?" Deckard barked as his helm snapped up to look at Gunmax.

Gunmax just smiled and waved. "HI!"

Deckard growled as he clenched his fist around his pen until it broke, he looked down to see dark blue ink oozing out from between his digits. "Oh, great,"

Someone from the Build Team's table threw a towel at him and he looked down at it, strewn across his arm-servo, before taking it gratefully and wiping the ink off of him.

Gunmax just chuckled. "And you say I'm destructive. Look at you, destroying pens left and right,"

Deckard just elbowed him so he fell off the desk with a crash and a muffled _"Ouch_"

Power Joe looked over at Deckard while everyone else made sure Gunmax was getting up just fine. "You sure we shouldn't have just let the dragon eat him?"

Gunmax froze on all fours and stared at the ground while he waited for the answer, which was…

"No, I still think letting Dragowan eat Gunmax was a very bad idea,"

"Aw, you do care," Gunmax stood up and dusted himself off.

Dumpson leaned across the table to whisper to Power Joe. "Is it too late to give him back to the Highway Patrol?"

The yellow mech whispered back, a little louder than necessary. "Already asked Chief and the Commissioner about it, they don't want to have to put up with his crap either,"

Without another word, to or from anyone, Gunmax turned on his heel and walked out of the room.

After he was gone, Power Joe pretended to feel bad. "Ooh, did we hurt the little jerk's feelings?"

"Gunmax and I both have night shifts tonight," Shadowmaru said without looking up from his report. "He always leaves early when he has night shift,"

Everyone returned to finishing their reports and Deckard finished cleaning off his servo before getting up to throw the broken pen in the trash.

While he was up he looked over at Yuuta and saw that the boy had his free hand pressed against his stomach while he worked on his reports. "You okay, Yuuta?"

Yuuta smiled at him. "Yeah, fine,"

Deckard could tell something was bothering the boy but couldn't figure out what. He looked at the clock on the wall and realized that it was getting late in the day. "You missed dinner again, didn't you?"

Yuuta's eyes widened and he looked down, embarrassed. "Kinda… that's okay, I'm not that hungry anyway,"

Power Joe scolded him the same way he did when he sat outside the boy's classroom. "Boss, if you need to go home then go,"

"We won't do anything bad, honest," Drill Boy added in a manner that reminded Yuuta of a little kid asking their parents if they could stay out late with their friends.

Deckard smiled at him. "Tell you what; I'll take you home after we finish our reports. It's getting late anyway,"

Yuuta thought for a moment and smiled. "Ok, race you!" he looked down and started scribbling wildly to get his report done as fast as possible.

Deckard chuckled and pretended to rush back to is seat. "Hey, no fair," he took a new pen out of his desk and finished filling out his own report.

After everyone finished their reports, Deckard took Yuuta home, McCrane went to see Seia and see what she was able to work out for the training retreat since there was still a chance that Dragowan was in the area and Shadowmaru brought the disk he had brought back from Dr. Madoh's second lab to the Commissioner while Dumpson, Power Joe, Drill Boy were stuck in the Decker Room for the night unless they got a call.

After a few minutes Drill Boy leaned back in his chair with a groan, let his arm-servos hang off the back and pushed off the floor with his peds to make the chair spin. "This is boring,"

Dumpson remembered something and got up to search among the desks. "Where did Gunmax put the remote when he was done with it earlier?"

Power Joe looked around. "That asshole better not have taken it with him again,"

Drill Boy gasped. "Power Joe, watch your mouth,"

Power Joe snorted "I don't curse around kids but that's just about it," The yellow mech then remembered just how much younger Drill Boy was. "Uh… hehe, sorry,"

Then all three of them searched the room for the remote for the monitor until Power Joe checked the other group of desks and held up the remote. "Found it, it was hiding behind the partition between the desks,"

The other two pulled their chairs over to sit closer to the monitor and Dumpson said "Let's watch some wrestling,"

Drill Boy moaned "No, didn't you get enough of that in Domingo Republic? Let's watch some soccer instead,"

Dumpson looked at his younger brother and said sternly. "Wrestling!"

Drill Boy glared back. "Soccer!"

The two mechs butted their helms together and tried to stare each other down. Power Joe just shrugged and turned on the monitor. "Let's just see what's on,"

The three of them looked up at the monitor and saw it was some kind of show that was in English with Japanese subtitles.

Dumpson tilted his helm to the side as they watched a group of people sneaking around what appeared to be an abandoned grocery store. "Gunmax must have been watching this while we were out,"

Power Joe looked at the remote then at the monitor and scoffed. "How inconsiderate, watching T.V. while we were out working,"

Drill Boy craned his neck to look over his shoulder at him. "Well, it's not like he could really go anywhere since his bike wasn't fixed yet,"

Power Joe mimicked an eye roll and kicked his chair over next to his brothers' "Well, let's see what this… thing is all about,"

Just as he said that, a horde of what appeared to be zombies came crashing into the store and a fight broke out, in the midst of the chaos a stack of shelves got pushed over and one of the humans got pinned underneath, leaving him easy pickings for the zombies.

The three mechs screamed along with the man as the zombie started closing in until another man in the group pulled a gun and aimed at it but before he could actually fire the show went to commercial.

After a moment, Power Joe asked. "What in the hell was that?"

Dumpson read the subtitles on the ad that had popped up in place of the commercial break that would be going had they been actually watching T.V. and not just streaming shows off the internet. "Says here it's a marathon of a show called 'The Walking Dead',"

The three of them looked at each other and then back at the screen, which went back to the show in time for them to see the man gun down the zombies. He fired a few more shots to make sure that the zombies stayed dead while the rest of the group went to help the man trapped under the shelves.

Drill Boy lunged for the remote as Power Joe moved to set it down. "Let's watch something else,"

Power Joe grabbed the remote and held Drill Boy back with one servo while he held the remote out of reach with the other. "What's the matter, scared?"

Drill Boy puffed out his cheeks and looked away, pouting. "No, I just think we put up with enough weird stuff in our cases as it is,"

Dumpson looked over Drill Boy's helm at Power Joe. "He's got a point,"

Power Joe finally relented "Fine, we won't watch 'Walking dead'. Happy?" he changed the channel and found something else to watch until he settled on something more familiar. "Hey, 'Cry me a river Café' is on,"

Both Drill Boy and Dumpson screamed "No! No, soap operas!"

Power Joe huffed and got up. "Fine…" he stepped away and held up the remote. "I'm going to throw this up in the air, whoever catches it gets to pick what we watch. Sound fair?"

Drill Boy and Dumpson both smiled and got up and the three of them stood in a circle.

"Okay, on three. One… two…"

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><p><em><strong>A.N.: Quick shout out to the people that reviewed andor added; BP-101Skyfander;**_


	11. Chapter 11

More Human Than Human

"Talking"

'_thoughts'_

"_Recordings, talking on the phone or singing"_

"_Speaking another language besides Japanese"_

:Talking through the comm. links:

Rated T for language and anything else I might have missed.

Disclaimer: I own nothing but my O.C.s, Starts after the events in "The Masked Brave, Dumpson" and goes from there with a few twists.

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><p>As soon as the remote went up, all hell broke loose.<p>

Power Joe had the advantage of height as he was taller than his younger brothers but Dumpson wasn't afraid to push him out of the way, making the yellow mech lose his balance.

Drill Boy, however, jumped onto and off of a chair and used Dumpson as a step ladder to get higher. This, however, caused Dumpson to also lose his balance and three toppled over in a heap.

This all happened in a matter of seconds as the remote fell to the floor with a clatter, the batteries spilling out as the back of it popped off.

The three brothers stared at the pieces of the remote in shock for a moment before Drill Boy was the first to scramble out of the pile. "Oooh, you guys are in trouble now,"

Dumpson looked at him as he and Power Joe sat up. "What do you mean? You pushed us over so we couldn't catch it,"

Power Joe shoved the Wrestling Detective. "No, _you_ pushed _me _over and then he pushed you over,"

"DOMINOES!" Drill Boy cheered, suddenly forgetting the trouble they might be in.

Dumpson got up and gathered up the pieces of the remote. "It looks like the batteries came out when this piece here came off. We should be able to put it back together again just fine,"

But then they looked at the batteries and Power Joe cursed under his breath. "They're human sized batteries. How are we going to get them back in?"

"Hang on," Drill Boy opened a compartment in his chest and a tiny little arm like the ones in the claw arcade games came out of his chest and hovered over the batteries.

"Whoa, how long have you had those?"

Drill Boy shrugged as he carefully picked up the batteries. "Forever, they're supposed to be for grabbing things and getting loose rocks out of the way when I'm tunneling in my alt. mode but so far I've only used them to help Boss put on his seat belt when we go flying but they should work. Got it!" he managed to grab the battery and pick it up.

"Alright, Drill Boy!" Power Joe slapped his brother on the back, causing him to almost drop the battery. "Whoops, sorry,"

Dumpson held the remote so Drill Boy could put the batteries back and Drill Boy started to put the battery he had back in but hesitated. "Uh, aren't these supposed to go a certain way? How do they go in?"

The three mechs just about fell over in shock at this realization so they agreed to set the remote and the batteries on the edge of the platform next to Yuuta's desk.

"If anyone asks tomorrow we tried to change the batteries and knocked the old ones out and into the trash but couldn't get the new ones back in, agreed?" Power Joe looked at his brothers to see if they were all clear on the cover story.

Dumpson and Drill Boy nodded. "Right,"

Then Drill Boy moaned. "But what do we do now?"

The three mechs thought for a moment, trying to find something to do to quell their boredom until it was time for recharge or they got a call, whichever came first.

Drill Boy started to take his soccer ball out of his chest but Dumpson pushed it back in. "No soccer in the Decker Room, we don't want anything else getting broken,"

Drill Boy looked down dejectedly. "Sorry,"

Power Joe then remembered something and went over to their smaller computer monitor. "Wait, I just remembered something," he took out some sheets of paper while he waited for the computer to boot up and the other two gathered behind him to read over his shoulder as he brought up a search engine and looked something up on the internet.

"What are you doing?"

Power Joe found the site he was looking for and started folding one of the sheets of paper according to the directions on the screen. "The kids showed me a game called 'paper football'. You fold a piece of paper like so…" he finished folding the piece of paper into a little triangle, adjusting the folds so the "football" ended up in their size.

"And flick it back and forth at each other and try to catch it like a football,"

After Power Joe explained how to flick the little white wedge, the three of them took turns flicking it at each other and catching it.

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_Meanwhile, at the Tomonaga house_

Yuuta kicked off his shoes and went upstairs to his room as soon as he got home.

He passed Kirumi on the stairs as she was going downstairs for dinner and she looked at him curiously. "Aren't you going to eat, Yuuta? We waited until you got home,"

Yuuta adjusted his backpack on his shoulders absently. "Not hungry, you guys go ahead," he slipped past the older girl just as Azuki came to the foot of the stairs, wiping her hands on a towel.

"Dinner's ready!"

"Not hungry," Yuuta repeated himself.

Azuki frowned sadly. "I still think you should try to eat something, Yuuta. Don't want you to get sick,"

Yuuta sighed in defeat and followed Kirumi downstairs to sit at the dinner table with his sisters.

He sat with his head in his hands while Azuki and Kirumi spooned food on their plates until Azuki said in a soft voice. "Yuuta…"

Yuuta jumped and figured he at least try to eat, if only to give his sisters some peace of mind, and dished smaller portions onto his plate.

Both his sisters watched him carefully and Kirumi asked. "Did you already eat? Is that why you're not hungry now?"

Yuuta shook his head and poked at his rice. "No, just not hungry,"

After a few moments of the sound of silverware against plates being the only sound in the room, Azuki asked "So, anything interesting happen today?"

Kirumi shrugged and paused in taking a bite of vegetables. "Eh, not much. A kid in my class got sick and had to go home early but that was about it,"

Azuki looked at Yuuta. "What about you, Yuuta?"

Yuuta shrugged as though his day was "business as usual". "A dragon attacked the city so the guys had Shadowmaru come get me from class so the others could unite and fight it,"

Both girls gasped. "A _dragon?!"_

Kirumi questioned him further. "An actual dragon, are you serious?"

Yuuta nodded. "Yep"

Azuki looked worried "Oh my, is everyone okay after that?"

Kirumi just got that look she always gets when she's daydreaming about something. "You know, now that I think about it… since they're covered head to toe in armor, the Brave Police are kind of like really big knights,"

The girl shuddered, there was no doubt in her siblings' minds that she was picturing the mechs from the Brave Police as knights in medieval times fighting a dragon but with swords instead of guns.

She realized they were staring at her and cleared her throat. "So, did you guys get to slay the dragon?"

Yuuta swallowed the bite of food he had just taken and said sheepishly "Actually, we lost it in the bay,"

His tone turned sour. "Some guys in a fishing boat thought that getting their catch to the market on time was more important than actually getting out of there alive so we had to save them when the dragon attacked the boat and swam away with the fish. Then Azuma called us back to the precinct to yell at us for making a mess and not catching Dragowan sooner,"

"Dragowan?"

Yuuta nodded. "That's… what we're calling the dragon for the police record. That scientist that made it was the same guy that made Gawan the dinosaur a while back,"

Kirumi crossed her arms. "If this guy is doing so much horrible stuff why hasn't anyone caught him yet?"

Yuuta stared at his food and stabbed a piece of chicken with his fork. Azuki looked at Kirumi and said pointedly. "Kirumi, I'm sure Yuuta and the others and the rest of the police are doing what they can to find him,"

Kirumi realized how what she said must have sounded and waved her hands in a "calm down" gesture at Yuuta. "Oh, I'm sure you guys will get him. I just hope no one gets hurt,"

Yuuta frowned and crossed his arms on the table and rest his head on them. "I hope Mr. Azuma stops being a poop-head and quits bugging us,"

Unknown to the three Tomonaga siblings, Deckard was listening in on their conversation as he sat in the garage in robot mode.

Normally, he would be in vehicle mode but he was drinking his fuel out of the gas can he had grabbed earlier since he didn't get to finish it at the precinct and Yuuta's comment on Co-Commissioner Azuma made him spill some of his fuel in his air intakes, making him cough on it.

"Hey, are you alright?"

Deckard looked in the direction of the voice and saw Sanae Itohata peering over the fence at him. "Oh, hello Ms. Itohata, I'm fine, how are you?"

The elderly woman smiled at him. "I'm fine, thank you," the smile changed to a worried frown. "Oh, we saw what happened in town today on the news. Are you and you're friends alright after all of that?"

Deckard paused for a moment, unsure how much he should tell her since Sanae Itohata was known for being a gossip, before saying. "Although the situation certainly could have gone better, Gunmax was the only real severe casualty and the technicians managed to have him repaired by the time we got back from combing the coast for the creature,"

Ms. Itohata smiled "Oh, that's good to hear…" then her smile disappeared. "Wait, Gunmax? Hmm, I don't think we've met him before, we all met the first three on the Build Team and I remember seeing that purple dog one here a few times but other than that the only time we've seen the others is on T.V."

Deckard tilted his helm to the side, the reason none of the neighbors had met Gunmax was because he was sure there was going to be a fight if the Motorcycle Detective ever did come by—and there wasn't a doubt in his A.I. that the mech would bait him into being one of the combatants—but he hadn't realized they hadn't even met Drill Boy and only caught a glimpse of Shadowmaru. "Shadowmaru can turn into a wolf, among other things. He doesn't like being called a dog,"

Ms. Itohata realized she had made a blunder and smiled apologetically behind one chubby, wrinkled hand while the other waved off what she had just said. "Oh, sorry, I didn't know,"

'_That's a first' _Deckard thought to himself. '_Ms. Itohata always seems to know everything that's going on,'_

He smiled at her reassuringly. "It's fine… just don't call him that while he's in earshot. Power Joe made that mistake and the only reason that didn't come to blows was because Yuuta interfered,"

Ms. Itohata frowned. "Is this 'Shadowmaru' character the type to pick fights?"

Deckard thought for a moment, trying to remember a time when Shadowmaru ever did pick an actual fight with them. "No, that would be Power Joe and Gunmax's territory,"

The two neighbors struck up a conversation; Ms. Itohata asking more questions about the Brave Police and their work while Deckard politely answered and asked of few questions of his own.

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_Speaking of Shadowmaru…_

In another part of town, Shadowmaru perched on the edge of the building overlooking a construction site.

According to the intel he had been given, there had been reports of suspicious activity going on in and around this particular construction site; mostly drug deals and gang activity that they would usually leave to human police officers, but there were also rumors of transactions of illegal or stolen robotic equipment happening which would fall under the Brave Police's jurisdiction.

Furthermore, there had been reports of human police officers turning up missing in that area, so he was sent instead of yet another human officer; the Commissioner said it was because of his skills but he knew the rest of the higher ups wanted to send in "the robot" so they wouldn't lose any more men and they could always review the information in his databanks to see what he found even if he didn't report back.

'_Well, at least they assigned me something I'm good at,'_

At around eleven o'clock at night, he spotted a person wearing a dark colored hooded sweatshirt and dark pants dragging a large plastic bag behind them. The load appeared to be heavy with the way the figure was dragging the bag across the ground, occasionally stopping to look around before resuming their drag.

Shadowmaru leaned forward, his curiosity hungry for the answers to the questions on his A.I. '_What's in the bag? And where are you going with it?'_

The Ninja Detective zoomed in on the person to try to see their face when they looked around again. '_Come on, look this way again. There we go…'_

As predicted, the mystery person looked around again and he saw under the hood; only to find the person was wearing a ski mask!

Biting his lip components to keep from shouting his frustration, Shadowmaru scanned the human's profile to see if he could find any defining features.

The person was wearing baggy clothes so it was nigh impossible to determine their build or whether or not they carried any tools or weapons on their person.

So Shadowmaru scanned the bag to try to figure out what was in it, at the distance he was at he could only determine there was nothing metal in the bag so it wasn't a robot parts dealer. He kept watching the figure until they looked around one last time before stashing the bag in an alcove behind a partially finished wall.

Shadowmaru watched the figure glance about as they scurried away from the scene into the night and shrugged. '_Probably just a litter bug dumping their trash, not what I'm here for,_'

He looked around the construction site and saw a small group of people talking to each other on the other side from where the 'litter bug' had dumped his load. These people were also looking around cautiously in between making gestures with their hands.

Shadowmaru zeroed in on them but was too far away to hear their conversation and he couldn't tell what the gestures meant exactly nor could he see their faces because they had their hoods up.

'_I'm _really_ starting to hate "hoodies" right now,' _the Ninja Detective thought to himself as he carefully climbed down from his perch and silently changed into his wolf mode. He crept closer under the cover of the shadows and hid in a narrow alley way close to where the three humans were standing.

Unfortunately, by the time he got there they were finishing up. Judging from what he heard from them this was a quick exchange to arrange another meeting. Shadowmaru peered around the corner as one of them—a man of medium height wearing a blue face mask who sounded middle aged—said "Alright kid, we'll meet here same time tomorrow night. You will have it then, right?" the man added with a sneer.

The second person, a young man who had his back to Shadowmaru, stammered and said. "Y-yeah, sure thing,"

The third person, a tall man wearing a red mask and appeared to be either the man in the blue mask's partner or lackey, grabbed the shorter man in front of him by the collar of his shirt and slammed him against wall.

"You'd better; we sure would hate to lose any more business partners, now won't we?" He released his captive with a sneer and laughed as he coughed and climbed to his feet without a word.

Shadowmaru watched as the two thugs left while the younger man waited until they were gone before leaving himself. He wasn't worried if they found him; if they did he would just arrest them for being under suspicion of illegal market dealings.

None of them found him and the third suspect pulled the sides of his hood to cover his face as he fast-walked away. Puzzled by this turn of events and frustrated that he was unable to identify any of the suspicious characters he had seen that night, Shadowmaru had resigned himself to the obvious.

'_Well, it looks like I'll be coming back here tomorrow night,'_

He waited until midnight before leaving; his orders were to be back at the precinct by one to check in—stupid paranoid board of directors only allowed him out after dark for his investigations as long as he kept letting them know he wasn't going to go rogue anytime soon.

When Shadowmaru got back he found the Commissioner in the Decker room sitting at Yuuta's desk. Curious as to why the man was there so late, he let the Commissioner know he was there by asking "You wouldn't happen to be snooping in Boss' things, now would you?"

The Commissioner stood up and looked at the clock on the wall before looking up at Shadowmaru. "Never thought I'd see the day where you would late for something. I was about to wake the others and send them after you,"

Shadowmaru cocked one hip to the side smugly as he pointed at the clock. "My orders were to report back here by one on the morning. That clock is ten minutes fast, I'm actually here a few minutes early,"

The man looked at the clock, then his watch and straightened his jacket as he cleared his throat. "Right, so you are. You can't blame me for worrying, all of the other officers that had taken this case _mysteriously disappeared_," he said the last part dramatically, like he was telling a ghost story.

Shadowmaru crossed his arm-servos, smug tone remaining. "Commissioner, you should know by now I only disappear when I want to,"

The Commissioner looked up at the mech, all business now. "So, what do you have to report, Detective,"

Shadowmaru stood up straight and said coolly. "Aside from a group of kids that cut through the construction site as a short cut home earlier in my surveillance, the only people that went into the site after the construction crews went home was someone that appeared to be dumping a heavy looking trash bag on the site and a small group of people that had a rather… interesting conversation that I managed to overhear,"

The Commissioner raised an eyebrow. "Interesting how?"

Shadowmaru took out another disc that he had brought with him that night and had copied everything he had seen and heard that night from his data banks onto on his way there. "Let me show you,"

He put the disk into the Brave Polices computer to play its contents on the monitor and fast forwarded to the part where the two men in masks made a deal with the third in the hoodie.

After seeing the footage, the Commissioner held his chin in thought. "Hmm, any idea what they were talking about?"

Shadowmaru shook his helm "Not sure but it's something to go on at least," he looked at the Commissioner. "Want me to sit in on that meeting too?"

Commissioner Saejima closed his eyes as he looked away and chuckled to himself "One step ahead of me, eh?" he looked back up at Shadowmaru. "Same thing tomorrow night, Shadowmaru," he waved at the mech like he was shooing a child off to bed. "Goodnight, Shadowmaru,"

Shadowmaru gave the man a two fingered salute as the two of them left the room. "You as well, Commissioner,"

Shadowmaru made his way to the maintenance bay, he was all for climbing into his maintenance cradle and powering down for the night, but once he got there he realized that things had been moved around since he had been in there last.

The American bots' maintenance cradles had been moved so they were along the walls with the others and everyone else's had been scooted over to make room for them.

Shadowmaru belatedly realized that all their cradles had been moved earlier but the change had been so subtle he hadn't really noticed it consciously but now he looked around at the new line up.

The Build Team was along one wall with Drill Boy on the end closest to the door, then Dumpson, then Power Joe, and McCrane on the end closest to the wall.

The new mech was against the far wall due to his size, if they had moved the others around so he could be against the side walls too someone would end up against the far wall anyway so it might as well be him.

On the wall opposite from the Build team, Artemis hung in her cradle next to her brother. The only other maintenance cradles on that wall were two empty ones, his and Deckard's.

Shadowmaru went over to his maintenance cradle, which was between Artemis' and Deckard's, and climbed into it and started to hook himself up to it. When he got to the power cable that would shut him down so the other cables he had hooked up to himself would recharge him, however, he hesitated.

He looked at the end of the thick cable like he had never seen it before and let his mind wander.

The Ninja Detective really couldn't get his thoughts to settle right then and he knew from experience that, while robots didn't dream, having too much on their mind when they powered down for recharge caused them to have "memory purges" where their subconscious minds replayed previous memory files in their data banks and there were quite of few that Shadowmaru didn't want to have to face again.

He looked around to see if anyone was around to see and quietly unhooked himself from his maintenance cradle. '_Maybe a quick walk will help me clear my head'_

The purple mech snuck out of the maintenance bay, through the garage and outside where he transformed into his wolf mode and disappeared into the night.

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><p><em><strong>A.N.: Quick shout out to the people that took the time to add andor review; RedOpticsDA, BP-101Skyfander,**_


	12. Chapter 12

More Human Than Human

"Talking"

'_thoughts'_

"_Recordings, talking on the phone or singing"_

"_Speaking another language besides Japanese"_

:Talking through the comm. links:

Rated T for language and anything else I might have missed.

Disclaimer: I own nothing but my O.C.s, Starts after the events in "The Masked Brave, Dumpson" and goes from there with a few twists.

* * *

><p><em>At the Tomonaga house<em>

Deckard came out of recharge suddenly, not knowing why aside from the fact that something seemed… off.

"Something is not right," he muttered as he scanned the surrounding area for anything amiss. The Police Detective didn't find anything at first but after a moment he heard a noise that sounded like muffled crying.

Then he realized that crying was painfully familiar.

"YUUTA!"

Deckard drove out of the garage and transformed into robot mode so he could see into the boy's window.

Sure enough, Yuuta was curled up on his bed crying. At first Deckard thought the boy was having a nightmare but then he saw that Yuuta's cherubic little face was scrunched up in pain and he was holding his abdomen.

"Yuuta!" Deckard shouted through the closed window. "What's wrong?"

Yuuta looked up at him with tear filled eyes. "Deckard…" the boy screamed before he could say more.

A moment later, lights came on in the hallway and Azuki came in and put a hand on Yuuta's forehead. "Yuuta, are you alright?"

Yuuta just bit his lip and cried. Deckard placed a servo on the window sill, wishing there was something he could do; he hated seeing Yuuta suffer, he would rather give up his Super A.I. Unit.

Azuki looked up and saw Deckard at the window. She went to open it and asked in that soft voice of hers. "Deckard, what's wrong with Yuuta?"

Deckard clenched his denta for a moment before forcing himself to calm down and answer. "I don't know, I heard him crying and came to investigate but…"

He looked at Yuuta as the boy started to sit up but then fell back on the bed screaming "IT HURTS!"

Azuki sat on the edge of his bed. "Yuuta, where does it hurt?"

"Right here," Yuuta pressed a hand on his side and cried when it hurt him even more.

Azuki felt there and pulled her hands away when he screamed again. She felt his forehead to see if he had a fever. "Oh, you're burning up,"

Deckard realized he was digging his digits into the side of the house and pulled away to look at the damage to the siding.

"Something wrong, Master Deckard?"

Deckard jumped and looked to see Shadowmaru's wolf form standing in the Tomonaga's driveway. "Shadowmaru, what brings you here?"

The robot canine shrugged. "I was out for a walk, thought I'd stop by on my way back to the station," the mech transformed into robot mode and stood in his usual casual stance with his arm-servos crossed. "So what's going on with Little Boss?"

Deckard flinched and looked at the window. "I don't know, Azuki is checking on him now. She says he's overheating and he's having stomach pains,"

Shadowmaru's optics widened and he went to look in the window just as Azuki came up to it.

The girl looked worried and was surprised to see Shadowmaru but greeted the Ninja Detective politely. "Oh, hello Shadowmaru," She looked at Deckard. "Deckard, I know it's late but I think Yuuta needs to see a doctor. You think you could give us a ride?"

Deckard's orange optics widened with worry but he forced himself to remain calm as he nodded. "Of course. May I?"

He reached up to the window and reached into the Yuuta's room once his sister moved aside and tried to lift him.

To his shock and horror, however, Yuuta just screamed and writhed even more, prompting him to set the boy down.

Deckard looked at Yuuta and then at his servo like it was a snake about to bite him; he had hurt Yuuta, _his _Yuuta.

Azuki tried to soothe her younger brother and reassured the distraught Brave Police mech. "It's not your fault, Deckard. Wait here, I'll call an ambulance."

She started to leave the room to make the call but Shadowmaru stopped her. "Wait, I think I know someone that can help. Let me just go get them,"

Deckard looked at Yuuta and then nodded at the Ninja. "Alright, but please hurry,"

"Roger!" Shadowmaru transformed into his patrol car mode and peeled out of the driveway, turning his siren on once he was on the road, leaving Azuki and Deckard to watch over Yuuta.

Sometime later he came back with a blue-and-tan ambulance that backed into the Tomonaga's driveway.

Before Deckard could say anything, a brunette woman jumped out the back of the ambulance with a bag slung over her shoulder. "Where is the patient?"

Azuki saw the EMT worker in their yard and called down. "One moment please," she left Yuuta's room and was at the front door a few minutes later. "He's upstairs. Please, can you help him?"

The woman followed her inside. "I'll do what I can,"

Both girls disappeared into the house so Deckard returned his attention to Yuuta until they came into his room.

The strange woman who had come in the ambulance set her bag down and sat on the edge of Yuuta's bed as she took out a thermometer and started asking questions. "So, what's your name, kid?"

Yuuta whimpered when she lifted his arm to tuck the thermometer under it and said. "Y-yuuta Tomonaga,"

The woman smiled and dug in her bag for a stethoscope. "Well, Yuuta, your sister tells me you have a fever and stomach pains. Anything you care to add?"

Yuuta shook his head and curled up around his midsection.

The female paramedic took the thermometer out from under Yuuta's arm when it beeped and checked the reading on it. "Ok. On a scale of one to ten, with one being no pain and ten being the worst pain you can imagine, how bad are these stomach pains?"

Yuuta mumbled into his pillow.

The woman tilted her held as she put the ear buds for the stethoscope in her ears. "I'm sorry, what was that?"

Yuuta held up seven fingers and cried out when the woman pressed the stethoscope to his abdomen after listening to his heart.

"Oh, sorry, sorry," The paramedic listened for a moment before leaning over to look Yuuta in the face. "Yuuta, this might not feel so great but I need you to bear with me, okay kiddo?"

Yuuta nodded and braced himself as cold hands pressed on his stomach to feel around.

"Where does it hurt worst?"

Yuuta pointed to his side and the woman slowly, carefully, worked her way there. "Were you injured there recently? Eat anything strange?"

Yuuta shook his head and cried when the afflicted area was pressed on and Deckard almost had to restrain himself to keep from throwing the woman—who he belatedly realized he didn't even know—away from Yuuta.

The female paramedic held her hand there for a moment before hissing and saying. "Yeah, he needs to get to a hospital,"

When they heard this Deckard was about a spark of his Super A.I. Unit away from trying to crawl through the window and Azuki clasped a hand over her mouth and asked "What's wrong?"

The paramedic put her equipment back in her bag. "If I'm correct then Yuuta has appendicitis and will most likely need surgery before it gets too serious if it hasn't already,"

She started to reach for Yuuta but Shadowmaru asked. "Alright if one of us lifted him out through the window so you don't have to carry him downstairs?"

The paramedic hesitated before throwing her bag over her shoulder. "Not the most medically professional way to do it but if you can do it without jostling or dropping him, I'm game,"

Deckard leaned closer so Yuuta could see him. "Yuuta, I'm going to try lifting you again. Think you can bear with me until we get you into the ambulance?"

Yuuta thought for a moment and nodded. "I think so,"

Deckard started to reach through the window to lift him but Shadowmaru put a servo on his arm-servo. "Maybe I should lift Little Boss out, this requires a finesse that I don't think you have,"

Deckard looked at him sharply, anger rising in his circuitry so suddenly he didn't have a chance to understand it before snapping "That's what you said about dealing with Kagero, remember how that turned out?"

Shadowmaru flinched away like a kicked dog, pun not intended, and looked at Deckard blankly. "Believe me, _Deckard, _I remember,"

Deckard realized he had overstepped at least a handful of boundaries with his comment and hung his helm in shame. "I'm sorry, that was out of line,"

"Yes, it was," Azuki frowned at Deckard; during the brief encounter with Shadowmaru's older brother, she had come to pity Kagero, even though he had held her hostage.

She even tried to convince him to come with them to explain to the others but the two brothers knew they wouldn't be given a chance to so Kagero knocked her out by carefully tapping his digit against the back of her head, just hard enough to make her black out for a few minutes. When she woke up Yuuta told her that Shadowmaru had distracted the others so Kagero could get away.

The paramedic spoke up hesitantly. "Um, sorry to interrupt, but can you guys discuss this later, please? Got a little boy here that needs a hospital so unless you guys want to wait here while I carry him downstairs to the bus and…"

"No, no, I got him," Shadowmaru slowly reached through the window and handled Yuuta as though the boy were made of broken glass as he lifted him through the window, hushing the boy whenever he whimpered, and carefully passed him to Deckard.

"Alright, tricky part is over, passing Little Boss to Deckard now," he was talking to both Deckard and Yuuta when he said this; Yuuta so the boy would now what was going on and Deckard so he would be ready to receive the boy.

Deckard couldn't help but let out a small sigh of relief when Yuuta settled into his cupped servos; sure, the boy was still in pain but he was hanging in there. "Come on Yuuta, let's get you in the ambulance," He knelt down and waited for the paramedic to open the back doors of the ambulance so he could put Yuuta in it.

He stiffened when Yuuta whimpered again and looked down to make sure the boy was okay.

To his surprise, Yuuta grabbed his thumb-digit and held it to himself like a frightened child would a stuffed animal and said in a small voice. "Deckard… don't go…"

Deckard looked at the boy for a moment before reassuring him. "Don't worry, I'll be right behind you the whole way,"

The paramedic came out of the house and opened the back of the ambulance so she could climb in and pull a gurney closer to the doors.

Deckard started to place Yuuta on the gurney but his servos made it difficult so the paramedic took Yuuta from him and strapped him down to the stretcher and hooked him up to a monitor.

She explained what she was doing as she taped the wires to Yuuta's chest under his shirt. "Alright, kiddo, this monitor is going to keep track of your vitals on the way to the hospital, if anything goes off it will beep, Understood?"

Yuuta nodded and the woman gave his shoulder a reassuring squeeze. "Alright, lie still and hang on, because we'll be going fast," she closed the doors and went to pound her fist on the barrier between the back of the ambulance and the front where the driver would be.

Yuuta couldn't see up front from where he was but he could hear the vehicle's engine start up and the sirens come back on as they drove away.

Outside, Deckard looked at the front side window of the ambulance to get a look at the driver only to find that the windows were tinted. '_Hmm, that's odd. How many ambulances have tinted windows?' _

He didn't have time to dwell on it, or use his scanners to try to see what was behind the tinted windows, since the ambulance drove away so he transformed into vehicle mode and followed.

As the two drove away, Azuki ran out into the yard, obviously intending on riding with Yuuta but stopped when she realized she had just missed them. "Yuuta…"

Shadowmaru saw she was starting to tear up and smiled down at her. "He'll be fine, he's in good hands now and the doctors will fix him up when they get there,"

Azuki smiled up at him. "I know, but…" she looked away with a worried look on her face.

Shadowmaru considered for a moment before offering. "Want me to take you there to see him when your sister wakes up?"

Azuki looked at him. "Oh, I don't want to be a bother,"

Shadowmaru waved her off. "It's fine, I was going to go check on him and Deckard on my way back to the precinct anyway. I can wait a while and give you girls a lift if you want,"

Azuki smiled up at him shyly. "Thank you," the smile became more sincere when the girl asked. "Can I get you anything?"

Shadowmaru shook his helm. "No thanks,"

Azuki pulled the jacket that she had thrown over her pajamas tighter around her and sat on a box that was pressed against the wall in the garage. "So, what brings you here this late?"

Shadowmaru transformed into his wolf mode and lay down under the tree in the yard, silently musing at the ironic 'de ja vu' of the situation… only this time it was Azuki with the "brother problems".

"I couldn't sleep so I went for a walk and somehow ended up in the neighborhood. I heard yelling so I came to investigate and found Deckard looking like he was about to try to crawl into Little Boss' bedroom window. The rest I think you can figure out,"

"Oh," Azuki went quiet, not sure of what else to say.

Shadowmaru let his helm rest on his paws and once again thought to himself '_All that's missing is that cat and this would be just like last time I was here.'_

Just then he heard the cat door on the side of the house open and close and looked up to see Urunyan come outside. '_Ah, speak of the furry little devil,'_

The cat noticed the giant robot wolf in the yard and stared at him, meowing as if to say "You again? What are you doing in my yard?"

Shadowmaru slowly moved closer to the cat and laughed as he fluffed up and arched his back. "Is that supposed to scare me, fluff ball?" he playfully pushed the cat over with his muzzle and the cat flipped over and retreated to where Azuki was sitting.

Azuki picked up the cat and carried him inside. "I'll go see if Kirumi is awake,"

Shadowmaru waited while the girl went inside to find her sister. Unknown to them, he was able to hear their conversation when she did.

Kirumi griped tiredly as she came downstairs. "What's with all the noise? It is way too early for this…"

Azuki hurriedly explained what had just happened. "Yuuta has appendicitis, the ambulance just left. All that noise you just mentioned was from us and the paramedic that came in the ambulance,"

Kirumi's eyes widened. "What, an ambulance? Oh poor Yuuta!"

Azuki went upstairs and waved her hand for Kirumi to do the same. "Get dressed, we're going to meet him there,"

Kirumi walked ahead of Azuki and looked over her shoulder at her. "Deckard giving us a ride?"

Azuki shook her head and she went into her room. "No, he followed the ambulance so Yuuta wouldn't get scared. Shadowmaru offered to give us a ride,"

"When did Shadowmaru get here?"

Azuki left her door open a crack since she and Kirumi were the only ones home so they could talk. "He said he was out on a walk and heard shouting when he was passing by and wanted to know what was going on. He was the one that got the paramedic,"

"Huh, that was nice of him," Then Kirumi leaned out of her room with a grin on her face. "Was the paramedic cute?"

Azuki paused for a moment and said. "Well, now that I think about it, she was actually quite pretty,"

Kirumi's smile faded. "Oh, it was a girl. Never mind,"

Azuki opened her door to look at Kirumi. "Why? Hoping to meet a handsome gentleman in a paramedic uniform?"

Kirumi blushed and ducked into her own room. "N-no, no I wasn't,"

Both girls finished changing out of their pajamas and went back downstairs and outside where Shadowmaru was waiting.

"Finally" the purple mech feigned impatience to tease the girls before transforming into his car mode.

Kirumi looked at Azuki and said "Shotgun" before going over to Shadowmaru's front passenger side. "Hi Shadowmaru,"

Shadowmaru opened the door on that side for her. "Hello,"

Azuki paused, wondering if Shadowmaru would be okay with her sitting in the driver's seat or if she should just get in the backseat, and stopped completely when she heard someone say her name.

"Azuki?"

Azuki looked in the direction of the voice and saw Masaya Kashiwazaki standing at the edge of their yard, looking concerned. Immediately, Azuki lost track of all coherent thought at the sight of her crush standing in front of her with his jacket unzipped over his pajamas. "Oh, Masaya, um hi… uh…"

The older boy walked closer. "Is everyone alright? I heard sirens and when I looked out the window I saw Deckard following an ambulance out of your guys' yard,"

Azuki clasped her hands nervously; she was always nervous around Masaya and she was already worried about Yuuta so her nerves were all over the place. "Y-Yuuta has appendicitis, he was in the ambulance you saw leaving here. We were just about to go after him to make sure he's alright,"

Masaya's concerned expression changed to one of sympathy. "Oh, sorry to hear that, I hope he's ok,"

Azuki blushed and nodded shyly.

Meanwhile, Shadowmaru and Kirumi sat watching the two "lovebirds" silently until Shadowmaru asked. "Just how long has this been going on between those two?"

Kirumi sighed and leaned against the arm rest and let her head tip to the side so that her seatbelt was supporting it like a sling. "Since Azuki was at least Yuuta's age. Everyone knows they both like each other but neither of them has the guts to say it,"

Masaya gave Azuki a reassuring smile and gestured towards Shadowmaru's alt. mode. "Well I'd better go so you can go see Yuuta,"

Azuki nodded, only half hearing what he was saying. "Okay,"

Masaya waved as he started to walk away. "See you later,"

Azuki also walked away. "Later…"

Masaya looked at her strangely and Shadowmaru said "Over here, Azuki,"

Azuki looked around and realized that she was walking _away _from Shadowmaru rather than towards him to get in his alt. mode.

She blushed and went back to where the purple unmarked patrol car was parked and waved goodbye to Masaya one last time before retreating behind Shadowmaru's door when he opened it for her, thankful for the dark-tinted windows as the door closed so no one could see how embarrassed she was… except for the Ninja Detective himself and her sister.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

_Meanwhile_

Yuuta lay on his back in the back of the ambulance, unsure of how long it had been since Deckard had placed him in it, while the paramedic looked him over as best she could with whatever equipment she had on board.

At some point, the paramedic put a hand on the side of his face to get him to look up at her as she said. "Alright, we're almost there. Once we get there a lot of things are going to happen really fast, so…"

Yuuta started to nod off, despite the pain in his abdomen, but the paramedic gently patted the side of his face to wake him up. "Hey, hey, stay awake, kid. Please, just hang in there a little longer,"

Yuuta blinked and tilted his head back to see out the windows in the back doors of the ambulance to see if Deckard really was following him like he promised.

He could only see the flashing lights from the strobe lights on the top of the ambulance and he couldn't tell if Deckard's lights were mixed in with them or not.

As the paramedic had said, as soon as they stopped the back doors opened and nurses came to take him out of the ambulance and into the hospital building.

As they pulled the gurney out, Yuuta heard a transformation sequence and Deckard's voice calling his name.

He looked around to try to locate the mech but the one of the nurses pulling him inside held him down to keep him from rolling off the gurney while the other one went over to talk to Deckard.

Once they were inside he was wheeled through the lobby, down a hallway, through a set of double fire doors, down another hallway until he got to a strange room full of doctors.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Deckard drove behind the ambulance the whole way to the hospital, refusing to let the blue-and-tan vehicle out of his sight. '_Aren't ambulances supposed to be red and white? Or blue and white?'_

When they got to the hospital Deckard saw a couple of nurses waiting at the curb that converged on the ambulance once it stopped and they opened the rear doors to reveal the paramedic pulling the gurney Yuuta was on closer to the door to be taken out.

As soon as they stopped Deckard transformed and tried to check on Yuuta but the boy was strapped down to a gurney so he couldn't sit up to look at him and the nurses that were helping unload him were blocking his view.

Then Deckard saw them wheeling Yuuta inside and, well, panicked. '_They're taking Yuuta away!'_

He started to follow but just as he realized he wouldn't fit through the automatic sliding doors one of the nurses, a middle aged woman with nut brown hair pulled up in a ponytail wearing light blue scrubs, came up to him. "Sir, I'm going to have to ask you to wait outside,"

Deckard nodded. "I know, I just…" he looked at Yuuta, just barely managing a glimpse before the gurney disappeared from view, then back at the nurse. "He'll be okay, right?"

The nurse looked at him like she was wondering if he really was concerned or if his A.I. was making him act like it because his "boss" was in trouble. Deckard took it in stride, he got that look a lot, until the nurse nodded. "We'll do everything we can for him. You can see him when we move him to a recovery room after surgery,"

Deckard let out a sigh of relief. "Thank you,"

The nurse went inside while Deckard went to stand around the corner of the building so he wasn't blocking the doors or traffic while he waited for Yuuta.

After a moment, Deckard started pacing; he wasn't a pacer but he found himself doing it until he decided to lean against the side of the building and let his mind wander anywhere but the worst case scenario of what might be happening to Yuuta right then.

"Hey"

Deckard jumped and looked up to see Shadowmaru on the roof. "Oh, hey Shadowmaru,"

The Ninja Detective tumbled off the roof to land on his peds on the ground and lean against the wall next to Deckard. "Just dropped the girls off at the door, they wanted to make sure Boss was alright,"

Deckard immediately felt bad for leaving without Yuuta's sisters; they were just as worried about the boy as he was but since Kirumi had been still asleep he had assumed Azuki would have wanted to wait at home to fill her in when she finally did wake up. "I should have done that myself,"

Shadowmaru looked at the mech like he wasn't sure he heard right. "And let Boss panic when he realized you _weren't _'right behind him the whole way' like you promised?"

Deckard went quiet, he knew Shadowmaru was right.

The Ninja Detective's expression softened. "So, how's Little Boss?"

Deckard sighed and shrugged as best he could with his arm-servos crossed over his chest. "I don't know, they brought him into the operating room and said they would move him to a recovery room when they were done,"

He pinched his nasal ridge. "But they didn't tell me where any of those are so I can't exactly peek in his window to check on him,"

Shadowmaru leaned his helm back and dimmed his optics as he touched his headband. "Hmm, the operating room is in the middle of the building so there are no windows for you to look in. The recovery rooms, however, are on the second floor and most of them do have windows but we'll have to wait until he is actually in one to find his window,"

Deckard looked at the Ninja. "How did you…" then it dawned on him and he snorted with a smile. "You hacked the security cameras, didn't you?"

Shadowmaru smirked at him. "Only the ones in the hallways pointed at the directory signs. I didn't peek in anyone's rooms if that's what you're asking,"

Deckard hesitated before asking. "Do you think you can find him?"

"Already on it," Shadowmaru his optics dimmed again and used his connection to the security cameras to locate their boss.

While they waited, Deckard remembered something he had been meaning to ask the Ninja Detective. "Shadowmaru, how do you know the woman from the ambulance? You never mentioned her before,"

Shadowmaru stiffened as his optics brightened and he looked away with a "_tch" _sound.

Deckard knew right away he was hiding something. "Shadowmaru…"

The purple mech suddenly perked up. "Oh, look, found the boss,"

Deckard frowned and felt conflicted; he knew Shadowmaru was only trying to change the subject but while he didn't want to give up on his questioning he just _had _to make sure Yuuta was okay. '_Screw it, I'll just ask him again later,' _

"How is he?"

Shadowmaru dimmed his optics again. "Hmm, he's already in the operating room, the doctors put a mask over his mouth and nose and are using some sort of gas to sedate him while they operate. He's nodding off now…"

He paused for a moment and said. "Now the surgeon is making sure Boss is out while a nurse is getting all the equipment ready for him. Ok, how many scalpels do they really need for one operation?" he mumbled the last part and let his servo fall away from his head band, breaking of the surveillance feed.

"They're starting now, I'll spare you the details,"

Deckard let out a sigh of relief, he may not be able to see it for himself but now he knew Yuuta was safe, for now. "Thank you,"

The two mechs sat in companionable silence for a few moments longer until Shadowmaru pushed away from the wall and stretched. "I'd better head back. I've been out longer than I should have been,"

He waved over his shoulder as he walked over to the parking lot. "I'll tell the others the Boss won't be in for work,"

Deckard waved back. "Alright, I'll be along as soon as I can. Oh, Shadowmaru…"

Shadowmaru stopped and turned his helm to show he was listening. Deckard smiled "Thank you," then he added "and send your friend my thanks as well next time you see her,"

Unseen by the police mech, Shadowmaru smiled. '_If only you knew…' _"No problem, Master Deckard,"

The Ninja detective transformed into his patrol car mode and drove away, leaving Deckard alone as he leaned against the wall as he looked up at the hospital building. '_Get better soon, Yuuta,'_


	13. Chapter 13

More Human Than Human

"Talking"

'_thoughts'_

"_Recordings, talking on the phone or singing"_

"_Speaking another language besides Japanese"_

:Talking through the comm. links:

Rated T for language, slash and anything else I might have missed.

Disclaimer: I own nothing but my O.C.s, Starts after the events in "The Masked Brave, Dumpson" and goes from there with a few twists. This chapter refers to the episode "My Fairy".

* * *

><p>Shadowmaru got back to the precinct and immediately checked on the others; both to make sure Artemis came back safely and to see if anyone noticed her come back on her own.<p>

Seeing the former and no evidence of the latter, the Ninja Detective hooked himself back up to his maintenance cradle with enough time to get just enough recharge that no one would know he was out all night unless they checked the security feeds.

He was going to settle for a quick "power nap" but the alarm went off and he pretended to wake up at the same time the others did._ 'Oh well, another day with little to no recharge, like that hasn't happened before,'_

Everyone fueled up quickly so they would have enough energy for whatever was ahead of them and the Decker Room. As they all sat went to their desks and Shadowmaru remembered. "By the way, Boss won't be in today and Deckard might be late,"

Everyone looked concerned and Dumpson asked. "Why, what happened?"

Shadowmaru got out a file of cases he was supposed to cover that day and looked it over while they waited for the Commissioner to get there and tell them what was going on as he explained. "Boss had appendicitis. I stopped by while I was out last night and Deckard looked about ready to break a window when Azuki said he needed an ambulance,"

This only calmed the others down minutely, now they knew the culprit had a name but they didn't know what it was or how serious it was, which Power Joe pointed out. "Appendicitis? What in the hell is that?"

"'Appendicitis' is when the appendix becomes inflamed and gathers bacteria. If left untreated, the appendix could burst and cause an infection in the abdominal cavity,"

They all looked up and saw Commissioner Saejima standing there and McCrane started to say "Commissioner, Boss won't be in today. He has…"

The Commissioner nodded. "I know, his sister called from the hospital and told me what was going on,"

Dumpson asked "How is something like that supposed to be treated?"

The Commissioner frowned. "The appendix must be surgically removed before it bursts or the resulting infection could prove… fatal," he perked up "Luckily, no one actually needs their appendix for anything,"

Everyone was a bit unsettled but Drill Boy was the one to voice it. "Poor Boss!"

McCrane pulled Drill Boy's arm-servos down from where he had thrown them in the air. "Calm down. He'll be fine as long as they remove the afflicted organ before it bursts and the infection spreads,"

McCrane hesitated and looked at Shadowmaru, who knew more than any of them about the situation. "They did get it out, didn't they?"

Shadowmaru shrugged. "Everything was going fine last I checked. I left once I was sure Deckard wasn't going to try to break into the hospital to check on the Boss,"

Commissioner Saejima cleared his throat. "Speaking of Deckard, we are going have to call him back. Yuuta probably won't be released until later today and we need everyone for this case so we can't afford to wait,"

"I'm on it," McCrane brought a digit to his comm. link and called Deckard.

:Deckard, return to the precinct. We have a situation.:

Deckard's voice sounded strained, like he didn't want to leave but also didn't want to shirk his job. :McCrane, what is going on?:

McCrane looked at the Commissioner in a "what should I tell him?" manner but the man just said "We have a lead on Dr. Madoh. Our sources tell us he might be using a warehouse outside of town to conduct more illegal experiments. Deckard will have to meet you all there,"

McCrane relayed the information to Deckard before ending the call and everyone left the Decker Room and ran out to the garage so they could drive out.

However, on the way out, Shadowmaru stumbled and fell to his knees.

Power Joe shook his fist at him after he almost tripped over him. "Hey, watch it!"

Dumpson tried to help the purple mech up, thinking he had just tripped, but saw that Shadowmaru was shaking violently as he tried to remain standing. "Are you alright?"

Shadowmaru leaned against the wall. "I'm fine, just a little low on energy,"

Power Joe scoffed as he walked past. "How can you be low on energy if we all just woke up?"

Shadowmaru laughed darkly. "Don't you need to recharge first in order to wake up?"

McCrane tilted his helm to the side. "Why haven't you recharged yet?"

Shadowmaru pushed away from the wall and forced himself to walk forward. "Unlike the rest of you, I didn't recharge on the plane and while you guys were here snoozing away, I was out investigating a case and then went to Boss' house and helped out there. I got back about ten minutes before the alarms went off,"

McCrane, being the unofficial second in command of the Brave Police, took charge of the situation. "Shadowmaru, you are in no condition to accompany us on this mission. Stay here and recharge. If we have not completed the mission by the time your energy is at an acceptable level you may join us,"

Shadowmaru was about to protest but found he literally didn't have the energy to argue and let Dumpson help him over to his maintenance cradle so he could hook himself up to it before powering down for recharge as the others left.

Sometime later, Shadowmaru woke up to see Artemis examining him while the new mech—who he assumed was Goliath from what Artemis told him earlier—stood off to the side with his arm-servos crossed, looking like a bouncer guarding a building.

Artemis saw he was awake and immediately asked "Are you alright?"

Shadowmaru ran a quick self-diagnostic and nodded. "Yeah, just got low on energy. They made me stay behind to catch up on recharge so I wouldn't slow them down,"

Artemis' ear finials drooped. "I'm sorry, if I hadn't been so slow in helping Yuuta you could have come back here sooner and got the rest you needed,"

Shadowmaru gave her a reassuring smile. "You helped save our boss; you have nothing to apologize for,"

Artemis gave him a "nice try" smile before waving the other mech forward. "Oh, since you guys haven't actually met yet. Goliath, this is Shadowmaru, the only sentient being on this side of the planet that knows about us. Shadowmaru, this is my brother Goliath,"

Goliath gave him a half smile. "Nice to meet you… If you rat us out they will need a magnifying glass to find what's left of you,"

The two mechs sized each other up until Artemis got between them. "Alright, alright, how about we let the poor ninja-bot rest before he shuts down from lack of energy?"

She looked at Shadowmaru after addressing Goliath. "Your reserves are at ten percent and dropping. Recharge, doctor's orders,"

"Yes ma'am,"

The American Braves got back into their maintenance cradles and the three bots powered down for the night.

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_Meanwhile_

Gunmax sat parked at the edge of the highway in his designated "speed trap" spot for the evening.

The Highway Patrol was still giving him shifts on top of what he did with the Brave Police and tonight he had a night shift, but he didn't mind; this little stretch of highway was the Motorcycle Detective's territory and Gunmax was its apex predator.

Gunmax maneuvered Gun Bike's handle bars to work the front tire back and forth across the pavement, almost twitching with anticipation. '_Come on out, little crooks. Ol' Gunmax wants to play,'_

The sounds of a familiar sounding engine and sirens caught his attention and Gunmax looked around to see Deckard's vehicle form speeding down the highway. '_What is he doing out here?'_

Out of habit and just for the hell of it, Gunmax scanned Deckard to see how fast he was going. '_Like that squeaky-clean rulebook-jockey would ever speed.'_

After double checking his readings, Gunmax saw that Deckard was in fact well above the speed limit. '_Ah, Patoka, you really know how to make a mech's night,'_

Gunmax turned on his own sirens and throttled after his team mate as he drove by and shouted. "HEY, _PATOKA! _WHERE YOU OFF TO IN SUCH A HURRY?"

Deckard answered back. "Investigating reports on illegal activity at the edge of town,"

Gunmax pulled up beside him so Deckard could see him smirk. "_Cool, _can I come with?"

Deckard whooped his sirens at him and a car in front of him that seemed to have forgotten that sirens mean get out of the way of the vehicle in possession of said sirens. "I thought you were working with the Highway Patrol tonight?"

Gunmax grinned and Deckard absently wondered if bugs got in his denta when he did that. "They said if the Brave Police had a case in our neck of the woods I had the option of helping if needed. You brought this shit through my turf, _baby,_ I'm coming with,"

Deckard sighed; he knew there was no getting rid of the mech now. "Fine, come on,"

Gunmax whooped and did a wheelie on Gun Bike before following Deckard to the warehouse they had been told to investigate.

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When Deckard and Gunmax arrived at the scene they found that they had gotten there a few moments ahead of the Build Team… and the warehouse they were supposed to investigate was on fire.

Gunmax pointed. "That it?"

Deckard nodded. "Looks that way,"

The Build Team arrived and once everyone transformed Power Joe whistled. "How are we supposed to find anything in there?"

"Like this!" Dumpson ran up to the building and kicked down the door, running inside.

"Dumpson!" McCrane called after his brother but he was already inside.

Deckard jogged up to the building and looked over his shoulder. "Come on, we'd better make this quick before the building collapses,"

"Roger!" they all ran inside and split up to search the building.

The flames didn't bother the mechs but after a few minutes of finding only beakers and other equipment that had been left behind, the Braves had to stop and dodge burning debris as the rafters and walls started to crumble.

Just as everyone else reported in that they found nothing, which furthered their assumption that the place was abandoned, Dumpson knelt down to check under a work bench and saw something taped to the wall with a flashing light on it.

"What's this?" he looked closer and saw it was a demolition charge and the flashing light was a digital timer counting down.

Dumpson stood up and waved the others towards the exit. "Everyone out, NOW!"

Everyone started to leave but paused to ask why. Dumpson shouted "IT'S A TIME BOMB!"

They all resumed running but more of the ceiling came down between them and the door so Deckard motioned for everyone to get down. "TAKE COVER!"

Everyone dove for the ground and covered their helms just as everything became a whirlwind of fire, debris and concussive sound.

When everything cleared, Deckard found himself pinned under a pile of debris with someone underneath him. He tried to push the debris off of him but he ended up falling down on top of the mech underneath him.

'_How did I end up on top of Gunmax?_' Imitating a human cough, the Police Detective cleared the dust out of his intakes and called out to the others. "Report, is everyone alright?"

"No need to shout, _baby, _I'm right here,"

Deckard looked down and saw Gunmax waking up and looking at him. "Gunmax, are you injured?"

The Motorcycle Detective rolled his shoulders and tried to sit up but found the tiny space he and Deckard were in wouldn't allow that. "I think so…" the mech smirked. "Although I got quite a few boo-boos though, _boo._ Kiss it better?"

Deckard was confused at first but his optics widened as Gunmax kissed him on the lip components. "Gunmax, what did I say about that?" Unbeknownst to the others, Deckard and Gunmax had been pursuing a relationship for some time.

Gunmax snorted and had he been human Deckard was sure he would be rolling his eyes behind his visor. "'Not in front of the Boss because it's unprofessional and the kid's still young enough to believe in '_cooties', _there's no one else is here but me and you,"

Deckard shifted the light in his optics to mimic an eye roll. "I said 'Not while we're on duty',"

Gunmax pretended to pout. "I'm always on duty, either with you guys or the Patrol. The only time I'm not working is when they finally let me recharge,"

After making sure there was in fact no one to see, Deckard playfully nipped one of Gunmax's neck cables. "And if you don't learn how to behave when you're on duty I'll stop sneaking out for our little _visits_ when you aren't,"

Gunmax gasped "Hey, no fair, I barely get any of _this _as it is," he somehow managed to slip his servos in the tiny gap between the rubble and Deckard to give his aft a quick squeeze.

Deckard squeaked and tried to turn around to see what had happened before looking down at Gunmax. "Did you just grope me?"

Gunmax pulled his servos back and held them up. "Cop didn't see it, I didn't do it,"

"…'Max, we're both cops,"

Gunmax's smirk faded "Oh…" he faltered for a better comeback and smirked devilishly. "Pictures or it didn't happen,"

Deckard let out an exasperated sigh. "You're hopeless,"

Gunmax smirked "You love me anyway,"

The patrol car smiled. "Yeah," the two were about to steal a quick kiss before trying to dig themselves out when the rubble that was pinning them down was suddenly pulled away.

"Well, what do we have here?"

Deckard blushed at the sound of Power Joe's voice and peeked over his shoulder.

The Build team had already dug themselves out and now they were looking down at him and Gunmax after having dug them out too.

Deckard belatedly noticed the way he and Gunmax were positioned and just how suggestive said position must have looked to their team mates. "N-nothing, nothing at all,"

He tried to get up but Gunmax pulled him back down and put him in a head lock. "_Quick_, put that back before he gets away! I'm not done with him yet!"

Deckard struggled against the green-and-white mech's grip. "Gunmax, let go or else,"

Gunmax smirked and called his bluff. "Or else what?"

"Or else…" Deckard twisted around to whisper something in Gunmax's audio. "…you won't be getting any for a _year!"_

None of the Build Team heard what he said but it made Gunmax gasp before helping Deckard up and dusting the mech off. "Sorry, _Patoka. __We cool?"_

Deckard looked at Gunmax's raised fist and remembered what that phrase meant—one doesn't spend a lot of time with the Motorcycle Detective without picking up some of his Engrish phrases—and mimicked the phrase while he bumped his fist against Gunmax's. "Yeah, _we cool,"_

Deckard then looked around. "Is everyone alright?"

McCrane stepped up, having already took stock on his sub-team's injuries, and reported. "A few dents and scrapes. It could have been much worse,"

Deckard rubbed his helm and looked around. "Anyone see any sign of where the suspect might have gone?"

Dumpson grumbled. "When were we supposed to look for that? We got here and searched the warehouse to see if anyone was still inside and then had to dig ourselves out when the damn place came down on our helms,"

Power Joe kicked at a large chunk of roof "Well, unless we find something in this mess that we can use to pin whatever theydid on them the only thing we've got on them is arson,"

Gunmax clicked his glossa in irritation and went to where he had parked Gun Bike but stopped when he spotted something on the ground; tire tracks and since they were too small to be Gun Bike's they probably belonged to one of the others or a human car.

"_Hey_, those tracksbelong to one of you guys?"

Everyone looked to see what Gunmax was talking about and McCrane went to examine the tire tracks. "Tire tracks?"

Power Joe held up his servos. "Not mine. I have treads, not tires,"

"Me too!" Drill Boy piped up.

McCrane knelt down to get a closer look at the tracks. "They're too narrow to be mine or Dumpson's. Deckard?"

Deckard came to stand next to where McCrane was crouching. "Not mine either. Gunmax and I came from the other way,"

McCrane frowned and ran a digit through the dirt to see how fresh the tracks were. They weren't even a few hours old and leading away from the warehouse. "So they drove,"

Deckard nodded. "At least we have that to go on,"

Power Joe scoffed. "How is that something to go on?"

McCrane wiped the dirt off his servos as he stood up. "We find the vehicle, we find whoever was driving it and bring them in for questioning,"

Drill Boy tilted his helm to the side. "So, now what? Do we follow the tire tracks?"

Gunmax looked around. "Where did the ninja bot get to? This stuff is supposed to be his thing," he whistled and patted his leg like he was calling a dog. "Here, Shadowmaru, here boy,"

Deckard looked around, realizing the Ninja Detective actually was missing rather than fading into the background like his title suggested. "Now that you mention it, I haven't seen him since he left the hospital,"

Gunmax looked at Deckard. "What was _Kujo _doing in the hospital?"

Power Joe took a swing at the mech but missed when he ducked. "Not him, Boss is in the hospital. Deckard followed the ambulance and Shadowmaru followed Deckard to make sure he wouldn't go crazy like he did when…"

While Power Joe explained the Gawan incident to Gunmax, Dumpson shook his helm and told Deckard. "We made Shadowmaru stay behind, his power levels were so low he could barely walk let alone actually do anything if he ever did get out here,"

Deckard hummed to himself. "Hmm, he seemed fine before,"

Drill Boy nodded "Yeah, we thought so too… but then when we were on our way out 'WHAM!'…" he swung his servo downward like he was throwing something at the ground. "…down he went,"

Deckard looked at the orange mech for a moment before sighing and walking away. "Let's just see where the tracks lead, at the very least we might be able to figure out the general direction they were heading,"

And so they followed the trail, everyone else followed the tire tracks while Drill Boy did an aerial sweep to see if he could see any vehicles leaving the immediate area.

They continued following the tracks until the trail ended on a paved road. Dumpson pointed to where the dirt from the tires got transferred onto the pavement. "Trail ends here, looks like they turned that way,"

Drill Boy landed next to the others. "Didn't see anything, now what?"

Before anyone could say anything, Gunmax grabbed the mouth piece from a CV radio on GunBike and spoke into it. "Breaker, breaker… Hey Karin, you on your route right now?"

Deckard looked at Gunmax, a little jealous of the way the other mech was talking to this strange person. "Who's Karin?"

Gunmax covered the mouthpiece. "Officer Karin is the Patrolman that had this route tonight,"

As he said this, a man's voice came over the radio. "_That you, Gunmax?"_

Deckard immediately felt foolish but hid it from the others. "Oh, ok,"

Gunmax wasn't fooled and teased him over a private comm. : Jealous, _Patoka_?:

He spoke over the radio again. "Who else would it be? Anyway, you see any suspicious vehicles within the last hour? Got a runner last seen heading your way from the east,"

No response at first before Officer Karin said "_Not that I recall. Got a description of the vehicle?"_

Gunmax frowned "_Negative_, suspect torched a warehouse after planting a time bomb for anyone that came to scope it out and hightailed it out of here,"

"_Hmm, not much to go on. Any chance it passed any traffic camera's?"_

Gunmax growled. "Even if it did I don't think it would help,"

"_Right… sorry man, not much I can do for ya,"_

Gunmax huffed and said a gruff "Thanks anyway," before slamming the radio mouthpiece back down on the hook. "Well, so much for that idea,"

Power Joe leered at the Motorcycle Detective. "I thought the Highway Patrol knows everything that's going on on the highways even with their eyes closed,"

Gunmax glared at the yellow mech. "What, you think they would have a fucking banner that says 'We burned down a warehouse and then blew it up'?"

"_GUNMAX!"_

Gunmax jumped at the sound of an angry voice shouting at him through the police radio on GunBike's console. "_Oh shit!" _ he grabbed the mouth piece and said "Yes Captain?"

The new voice, presumably the captain of the Highway Patrol, said in a bemused tone. "_Instead of asking your fellow Patrolmen what they're seeing on their routes, how about you get your brass ass back to your own?!"_

Gunmax bit his lip component and then looked at Deckard and smiled as he said "Sorry sir, I was pursuing a speeder that came through my route…"

Deckard grabbed the mouthpiece away and spoke into it. "Sir, this is Deckard of the Brave Police, we were investigating a case nearby and asked Gunmax for assistance since he knows the area better,"

The Highway Patrol Captain simply asked "_Do you absolutely need him right now?"_

Deckard hesitated and the man on the other end of the line said "_I'll take that as a 'no',"_

He raised his voice and said "_Gunmax, I know you can hear me, get back to your station. If that motorcycle gang is having street races in your sector while your back is turned again I'm going to reassign you!"_

Gunmax roughly took the mouth piece back and said "Yeah, yeah, be right there," he turned off the radio and hung mouth piece back on its hook. "Well, crap," he mounted GunBike and started the engine.

McCrane looked at the Motorcycle Detective. "What did he mean by 'reassign' you? I thought you were with us now?"

Gunmax laughed harshly. "Nope, I'm still doing shifts with the Patrol," he looked over his shoulder at the others "Where do you guys think I go when I'm not with you, '_Starbucks'_?"

He kicked off and drove away, tires spitting gravel everywhere as he peeled off the dirt road and sped down the highway.

The others gave him a passing glance before walking away, Power Joe asked "How come no one told _us _he was still doing Patrol work on the side?"

Deckard was the only one that watched Gunmax go until Gunbike's tail lights were no longer visible. "Because he didn't think it was any of our business and everyone else that knew thought either he told us or it was so obvious that he didn't need to,"

He turned on his heel and walked back the way they had come. "This trail is a dead end, let's check the crime scene again before we go,"

They all went back to what was left of the smoldering warehouse and sifted through the debris, only to find nothing but burnt wreckage so they left to report what little findings they had—or lack thereof—to the Commissioner before they all returned to their maintenance cradles.

Well, all except Deckard who went back to the hospital to wait for Yuuta.

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><p><em><strong>A.N.: comments, questions and suggestions are welcome. Any flames will be dealt with accordingly.<strong>_


	14. Chapter 14

More Human Than Human

"Talking"

'_thoughts'_

"_Recordings, talking on the phone or singing"_

"_Speaking another language besides Japanese"_

:Talking through the comm. links:

Rated T for language, slash and anything else I might have missed.

Disclaimer: I own nothing but my O.C.s, Starts after the events in "The Masked Brave, Dumpson" and goes from there with a few twists. This chapter refers to the episode "My Fairy".

* * *

><p>Later that day, Yuuta woke up with a dull ache in his middle and a clouded head.<p>

He licked his lips, wondering why his mouth felt and tasted like it was lined with cotton, as he opened his eyes and realized he had no idea where he was.

The plain white tile ceiling and all the noises he was hearing told him he was in a hospital but he didn't know much else. '_How did I…'_

Yuuta heard someone else in the room with him and tried to sit up to get a better look at his surroundings and find out more but winced when his stomach started hurting and the tubes on the IV in his arm were pulled by the motion.

The nurse that was in the room with him, a thin and pale woman with pink hair that was tied up in pigtails and blue eyes, saw he was awake and went to ease him back down. "Easy there, you just had an appendectomy,"

Yuuta looked up at the nurse with confusion "Appendo-what?"

The nurse sighed as though she had forgotten she had been talking to a child that didn't know any better and elaborated further. "You had your appendix taken out last night, so don't try to move around too much,"

Her tone and expression softened as she smiled sweetly at him. "That said, you feeling up for visitors right now? There's someone here to see you,"

Curious, Yuuta nodded. '_Who could it be?'_

The nurse smiled and raised the top half of Yuuta's hospital bed so that he was in a seated position before going to let his guest in.

However, instead of going to the door like Yuuta expected, she went to the window and opened it. After a moment of looking around she smiled "Oh, there you are. He's awake now if you wanted to talk to him,"

The nurse stepped back and Yuuta craned his neck to see out the window just in time to see Deckard look into it. "Yuuta?"

Yuuta grinned when he saw his friend. "Deckard!" Without thinking about it, Yuuta started to climb out of bed to go to the window but fell back against the pillow with a wince.

Worried, Deckard leaned as close to the window as the screen on it would allow. "Yuuta, are you okay?"

Yuuta gave the mech a pained smile and said "Yeah, just sat up too fast,"

The nurse helped him reposition himself on the bed and tucked the blankets around him. "You shouldn't be getting up at all just yet,"

Her pager beeped and she looked at it before looking back at Yuuta. "I'll give you boys some privacy," she pulled out a small remote that was attached to Yuuta's bed by a thick wire and showed him how to use it.

"These buttons here let you lower and raise the bed if you want to lie back down before I come back, and if you _do _need me to come back press this one here, ok?"

Yuuta took the remote from her and set it next to him before smiling up at her "Thank you"

The nurse smiled back and left the room, leaving Yuuta and Deckard alone. The latter broke the brief silence. "How do you feel?"

Yuuta shrugged "Fine… what all happened last night?"

Deckard dutifully filled the boy in on anything he might have missed. "You had appendicitis last night. Shadowmaru stopped by, he said he heard yelling while he was out on a walk and came to investigate, and went and got a friend of his that drove an ambulance,"

Yuuta interrupted. "Wait, who was yelling?" he tried to think back to the night before and remembered hearing Deckard's voice along with Azuki's and since Azuki never yelled… "Deckard, why were you yelling?"

Deckard looked sheepish. "I was worried… and I wasn't _really _yelling…"

Yuuta smiled "It's ok," Then he realized something. "Wait, were you waiting outside my room all night?"

Deckard laughed and shook his helm. "No, you were in surgery until sometime this morning and I got called away to help follow up on a lead to Dr. Madoh,"

Yuuta perked up. "Dr. Madoh, did you guys catch him?"

Deckard frowned "No, it was another dead end, this time he torched the building before he ran,"

Yuuta pouted. "Great,"

Deckard tried to cheer him up by adding "Your sisters were here earlier too but they needed to go to school. Kirumi tried to convince Azuki that they should just skip school and stay with you but Azuki wouldn't let her,"

The two laughed at this until a nurse, this one a little older with curly dark hair held back by a head band under her uniform's hat, came in pushing a cart.

She saw Deckard at the window and stumbled back, almost dropping the tray she had been taking off the cart. "Oh my…"

Then she seemed to recognize Deckard from somewhere and looked at the chart on the end of Yuuta's bed. "Oh, that's right; you're the Brave Police boy,"

The nurse gathered herself and smiled nervously at them. "I'm not interrupting anything, am I?"

Deckard reassured her with a smile. "It's quite alright, was there something you needed?"

The nurse looked at Yuuta and held up the tray she had almost dropped. "I was just dropping by to bring young Mr. Tomonaga his lunch, if you're up for it,"

Yuuta nodded. "Sounds great, thank you," the he realized what she said and his eyes widened. "Wait…_ lunch? _How long was I out?"

The nurse set the tray on a little stand that held it over Yuuta's lap as she informed him. "You were in surgery for about two hours and were moved in here to sleep off the sedatives. It's almost noon now so you've been sleeping for about ten hours,"

Yuuta sighed "Geez" but then he saw what was on the tray when the nurse pulled the cover off for him; a bowl of chicken noodle soup, a bottle of orange juice, a pudding cup and a little bowl of ice cream.

That cheered him up. "Yum!"

The nurse went back to her cart and said over her shoulder "I'll be back for your dishes later. Did Joyce show you how to call one of us if you need anything or no?"

Yuuta looked at the nurse. "Joyce?"

The nurse smiled "The girl with pink hair that was in here earlier; that was Joyce. I'm Nanci, by the way,"

Yuuta smiled back. "Oh, nice to meet you,"

Nurse Nanci smiled over her shoulder as she pushed the cart she had parked outside the room away. "Be back in a few,"

After the nurse left, Yuuta immediately started in on his soup, crunching up the little packet of crackers that came with it and pouring them into the bowl and stirring them in as he ate.

He paused in taking a bite and looked at Deckard. "You said Dr. Madoh burned his lab when he left, was anyone hurt?"

Deckard hesitated before answering "There was no one inside when we got there but we went in to make sure of that, only to find a time bomb had been planted inside,"

Yuuta spat out his soup and stared at Deckard. "A time bomb?! Are you guys okay?"

Deckard held up his servos to calm to boy. "No one was injured, just a few scrapes but by the time we dug ourselves out the trail had gone cold,"

Yuuta looked at the tray in his lap guiltily. "I should have been there…"

Deckard frowned. "And you would have ended up here anyway when the warehouse went up,"

Yuuta sighed and took another bite of his soup. "Yeah, you're right,"

Deckard looked away for a moment and looked back at Yuuta. "I'd better head back before anyone realizes how long I've been gone. I'll be back to pick you up when they let you out,"

Yuuta nodded, not wanting his friend to leave but also not wanting for him to get in trouble. "Ok, tell the guys 'hi' for me,"

Deckard smiled "I will," he started to walk away but came back to the window almost as soon as he had left it.

"Oh, that reminds me, Shadowmaru and the Build Team send their best wishes and Gunmax wanted me to tell you to 'go easy on the ice cream' because when one of his co-workers from the Highway Patrol had appendicitis when they finally came back they couldn't stop complaining about how they ate too much of it,"

Yuuta laughed "Did he really or did you make that up?"

Deckard tilted his helm. "Well, he didn't actually say 'complaining' but I'm not repeating what he actually said,"

Yuuta smiled and waved. "Ok, I'll see you later, Deckard,"

Deckard waved as he walked away from the window.

Yuuta looked at the tray of food in front of him and realized he wasn't really that hungry right then.

He picked up the pudding cup "I'll save this for later," he looked around and saw his clothes in a pile on a chair and tossed the pudding cup on top of the pile and finished his lunch.

As Deckard walked to the parking lot he heard someone say "Whoa, mom look, it's Deckard from the Brave Police!"

He looked around and saw a young boy a little older than Yutta had come out the hospital doors with his mother and was now pointing up at him excitedly.

Not wanting to seem rude, Deckard smiled at the boy and said "Hello".

The boy's mother seemed nervous and reached toward her son. "Yes, yes, very nice let's go,"

It was obvious that the mom was nervous seeing a giant robot up close, maybe even afraid of him, but the boy went right up to Deckard and asked "Can you sign my cast, please?"

Deckard tilted his helm curiously until he saw that the boy was holding out his arm which was encased up to the elbow in a plaster cast.

The boy started searching his pockets with his free hand. "I think I got a pen here somewhere. Here it is!" He held up a pen but then the boy saw Deckard wasn't reaching out for it and his smile disappeared as he thought the mech was going to say "no".

But then Deckard knelt down and gestured for the boy to come closer as he withdrew a pen from subspace. "Alright if I use one of mine? I don't think I would be able to write very well with a human sized pen,"

The boy grinned and held up his arm. "Awesome!"

Deckard carefully wrote his designation, as small as he could while keeping it legible, on the boy's cast under the careful watch of the boy's mom. "There you go,"

The boy grinned and jumped up and down. "Awesome, the other kids at school are going to be so jealous!"

The mom, not knowing what to make of the situation and still nervous, put a hand on her son's shoulder. "Sweetie, we'd better get going, tell the robot cop 'thank you' and let's go,"

The boy smiled up at Deckard after looking over his cast as though to make sure he didn't just imagine having it signed by a Brave Police mech. "Thank you!"

Deckard smiled back "You're welcome,"

Deckard stood up as the woman lead her son to their car. As he transformed into his vehicle mode he thought about what just happened.

Even after everything they had done, the people of Nanamagari city were split down the middle; half the people loved them while others feared or hated them, and others still were indifferent to them—only caring as long as they did their jobs but they were still "just machines".

Deckard sighed through his vents as he drove away. '_Can't please everyone'_

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Back at the Decker Room, Power Joe, Gunmax, and Drill Boy sat at their desks, maintaining their weapons, while McCrane and Dumpson were out on patrol and Shadowmaru sulked in the crawl-space in the ceiling.

The Ninja Detective hated missing out on the action and to say that he was upset over missing out the night before was one hell of an understatement. Had he been there they could have caught the crook's trail no matter how long it had been since he had left but he _wasn't!_

Which brought Shadowmaru to the second reason why he was isolating himself; Drill Boy had unintentionally let it slip that Gunmax and Deckard had asked about him when they found the trail, they hadn't even noticed he was gone until they needed him! Sure, he was a _Ninja _Detective but come on!

He was brought out of his depressed musings by a call from Power Joe. :Hey, where are you? Everyone else is here already.:

Shadowmaru pulled one of the ceiling tiles aside and looked down at the Build Team's table where Power Joe sat with his digit against his helm.

The Ninja Detective smiled to himself. '_Well, at least there's _one _good thing about being anonymous…'_

He leaned down through the gap in the ceiling and said. "Up here!"

Shadowmaru grinned when Power Joe and Drill Boy both jumped while Dumpson and McCrane turned to look up at him and Gunmax simply glanced up to make sure nothing was going to fall on him from the ceiling but otherwise ignored him.

Deckard tilted his helm back and said. "Shadowmaru, if you would join us we can get started,"

"Ok," Shadowmaru held the ceiling tile so that it would fall back into place when he let go of it and jumped down through the hole, landing on his peds next to the desks and sat in his seat.

Deckard turned to look at everyone and said. "Alright, since Yuuta isn't here I guess I'll start," he looked over at the Build Team's table. "Dumpson, McCrane, did either of you find anything?"

Dumpson shook his helm. "No, nothing,"

McCrane turned his chair slightly. "I didn't actually find anything on my patrol either, but I stopped at the DMV to ask if there were any vehicles registered in Dr. Madoh's name,"

Deckard somehow knew from McCrane's tone that there was a good chance he was going to like what he was going to hear next. "And?"

McCrane held up a piece of paper. "Got the make, model and color of the car as well as the VIN number and license plate numbers. If they took the car that is in Dr. Madoh's name we should be able to find it,"

Gunmax looked at him. "And if they didn't?"

McCrane looked down at the piece of paper between his digits. "Then I just wasted paper… and that crabby lady's time by having her look up their vehicle registry,"

Deckard held his servo out for the paper and McCrane went to hand it to him. "Well, at least we have some idea of what to look for,"

Shadowmaru smiled at him "You mean aside from whatever trap or monster he has waiting for us this time?"

Deckard smiled back "Funny how you mention 'us', it's our turn for patrol. Gunmax and Power Joe will have their turn later this afternoon,"

The two mentioned mechs pointed each other and asked with dismay. "I've got to work with _him?"_

Deckard frowned "You don't have to stay together the entire time if you really don't want to, just as long as you stay in contact with us and each other," he looked around at the other occupants of the room. "Anyone have anything to add? Any further discussion?"

No one said anything so Deckard nodded "Alright, meeting adjourned… for now, we will have another one when Yuuta is released from the hospital, the Commissioner will be joining us for that one as well,"

Everyone nodded in understanding. "Yes sir,"

After Deckard and Shadowmaru left for patrol, everyone found something to occupy themselves. While Dumpson and McCrane finished their reports, Power Joe cleaned his weapons and Drill Boy spun around in his chair to see how fast he could go without tipping over.

Gunmax saw the remote on the edge of the human's platform and grabbed it, but when he tried turning on the monitor with it nothing happened.

'_What the…'_ he tried the power button a few more times before noticing the remote was lighter than usual. He turned it over and saw the batteries and the back of the remote were gone. "What happened here?"

Everyone looked up and saw he was holding up the empty remote.

Drill Boy stopped spinning and looked at his brothers in a "Now what?" manner.

Dumpson just shrugged like he knew nothing about it and Power Joe just pretended he didn't hear Gunmax so Drill boy tried to remember the cover story they had come up with the night before. "Oh, uh… we tried to change the batteries last night. We knocked the old ones out and into the trash but we couldn't get the new ones in because they're… you know human sized,"

Gunmax looked at Drill Boy like he didn't believe him and leaned against Deckard's desk. "There was nothing wrong with them when I was using the monitor last night," he went over to the trash can and looked inside. "You said you put the old ones in here?"

Drill Boy nodded and Gunmax shook the trash can to sift its contents. "Don't see them in here,"

Drill Boy's smile became more forced. "Oh, uh… maybe someone changed it last night?"

Gunmax reached in and pulled out pieces of a broken pen. "Then why is the pen that Deckard broke last night still here?"

Drill Boy flustered; he was cornered and he knew it but he didn't want to give up. "Uh…"

Gunmax spotted the batteries and the back of the remote sitting where the remote had been. "_Freaking morons…"_ he picked up one of the batteries, which was about as big as a Tic Tac to him, between his digits and put it in the remote before doing the same with the other batteries and putting the cover back into place.

Dumpson looked over. "How did you…"

"Practice" Gunmax tried the remote again and smirked when it finally worked. "Boys, if you're going to lie, lie well," he surfed through the channels until Power Joe got sick of hearing the clicking of the remote and snapped.

"Oh for crap sake, pick a channel already!" the Kung Fu Detective snapped.

Gunmax snorted, feigning irritation but privately enjoying the fact that he was pushing the other mech's buttons. "Fine, just let me find… ah here we go," he settled on a streamed American channel that was showing that same zombie show from last night.

Drill Boy looked over. "How can you watch that? It's just a bunch of zombies jumping out at people who scream and shoot them?"

Gunmax smirked, not looking away from the screen. "How can you watch soccer? It's just a bunch of guys running around in shorts trying to kick a ball into a net,"

Drill Boy gasped as though someone had insulted his mother, if he had one. "You take that back!"

Gunmax just held up his servos in a shrug. "Hey, at least I'm learning how to kill zombies," he slowly looked over at Drill Boy. "As crazy as this town is, you never know when one might show up…"

Drill Boy looked at him nervously and Dumpson cut in. "Ah, come on, it hasn't been _that _crazy,"

Gunmax counted off on his digits. "Killer robots, a giant panda, giant robot bugs, a cloned dinosaur, a dragon…"

Drill Boy started to protest "Yeah but still…" they all heard screaming coming from the monitor and looked to see what was going on just in time to see a particularly gory scene.

The Build Team averted their optics with cries of shock and/or disgust while Gunmax shook his helm. "Asshole probably had it coming,"

McCrane frowned "Your concern does you credit,"

Gunmax shrugged "They're just actors," he looked at the other mech's in the room. "What, you think if the zombie apocalypse did hit they wouldn't tell us?"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

_Meanwhile, with Deckard and Shadowmaru_

The two mechs drove along the street, Deckard in his vehicle mode while Shadowmaru followed behind in his patrol car mode.

After about several minutes of relative silence, Shadowmaru spoke up "You know, Deckard, I was surprised to hear that you changed the roster at the last minute. Power Joe was supposed to be with Drill Boy, not Gunmax, while I was written down to be with Mr. Motorcycle,"

Deckard answered automatically as he focused on the road. "Gunmax needs to learn to work with other people. Dragowan is still out there and we don't know what Dr. Madoh has up his sleeve next so we should use the buddy system so neither of them catches any one of us alone,"

Shadowmaru saw what was really going on. "Little Boss is in the hospital and you're not used to doing patrols alone,"

Deckard flashed his headlights in surprise. "N-no, that's not true!"

Had Shadowmaru been in robot mode he would have been shaking his helm with a smile on his lip components. "Of course not," they came to a stop light and stopped. "You do realize that this leaves Drill Boy the odd one out so he'll have to go alone,"

Deckard hadn't thought of that at first. "I'll go with him if none of his brothers want to,"

Shadowmaru scoffed "Double patrols? Deckard, you do realize a drill tank can't keep up with a car or truck, which I'm guessing is why you originally had him with Power Joe since they both have treads which aren't that fast. Furthermore, none of you can fly so if he decides to patrol from the air you will be the ones struggling to keep up with him. Let me go with him, I can keep up with him in the air and wait for him if he uses his ground-based alt. mode,"

Deckard smiled internally; although the purple mech would never admit it, he was gradually becoming a big brother figure to Drill Boy and would often show it when he didn't think anyone was paying enough attention to notice, like when Shadowmaru helped Drill Boy snap out of it during the Inti case.

One thing that concerned Deckard right then though… "Weren't you sick last night?"

Shadowmaru was tempted to ram the patrol car in front of him but then the light turned green and they started moving again so he couldn't even if he wanted to. "I just needed recharge to get my energy back. I'm fine,"

Deckard hesitated but knew he would get nowhere with arguing with the Ninja Detective; even on those rare occasions where he actually lost an argument there was still a chance he would go off and do his own thing anyway, he was like a rebellious teenager in that respect. "If you say so,"

"I know so," Shadowmaru changed lanes so he could get into a turn lane while Deckard continued going straight. "Well, looks like this is where we part ways for now, Master Deckard. Stay in touch,"

"You do the same, Shadowmaru. And be careful! Whoa!" Deckard swerved as a blue car cut him off to merge with traffic sooner than it should have.

Shadowmaru laughed as he called Deckard over the comm. links. :Maybe you should take your own advice.: he cut off the link before Deckard could say anything and drove away.

Deckard sighed and turned on his sirens to pull over the blue car for reckless driving. However the driver ignored him and not only did they not pull over they drove faster to try to lose him.

Deckard huffed '_Why do they bother trying to run? With as bad as traffic is they won't get far.'_

He drove faster to pull up alongside the driver to signal him to stop, but then he saw the man at the wheel. "He looks familiar, but where…"

Then Deckard realized why, he matched the description of Dr. Madoh to a "T". He took a good look at the car and saw it matched the description that McCrane was able to get too.

He activated his P.A. system and all but shouted into it. "Pull over to the side of the road, now!"

The man at the wheel, Deckard was sure it was Dr. Madoh now, hid his face behind the collar of his shirt swerved to ram Deckard and went into a mob of traffic.

Deckard contacted Shadowmaru. :Shadowmaru, do you read me?:

:Yep, having troubles?: Deckard heard the sound of a jet taking off and saw Shadowmaru's jet mode appear above the surrounding buildings a few moments later.

Deckard drove after the car but traffic was getting thicker. :Stay on that blue car, the driver fits the description of Dr. Madoh to the point where he might as well be wearing a name tag with the scientist's name on it.:

:On it!: Shadowmaru flew after the street so he was above the car and stayed with it as it swerved between cars, even knocking a minivan out of the way so it could get onto an exit ramp that went into a parking garage.

:Deckard, he's heading into an underground level of a parking garage a few blocks from you on the right.:

Deckard huffed and tried to find a way past the traffic jam that the minivan that had been knocked into traffic had caused. :Copy that, I'll be there as soon as I can.:

He transformed and skirted the parked cars that were now honking angrily and apologizing to the drivers. "Excuse me, pardon me, official police business…"

The drivers just shouted at him, some used rudely colorful language, and honked at him some more until he got to the van and pulled it aside, dragging it by the front bumper.

Once the way was cleared he knelt down and looked at the driver; a young woman with dark hair pulled back in a ponytail. "Are you alright, miss?"

The woman nodded, holding her head. "Yeah, going to be late for work now, though,"

"I'm sorry," Deckard heard gunfire not far away and took out his gun as he ran along the side of the road, jumped a barrier and ran down the ramp to the underground level of the parking garage that the ramp led to.

Deckard looked around for any sign of either Dr. Madoh, the car he had been driving or Shadowmaru. He didn't see any sign of the first two but he did see Shadowmaru using a pillar for support as he stood up, clutching his shoulder.

"Shadowmaru! What happened?" Deckard ran over and examined the other mech's shoulder, a mixture of oil and hydraulic fluid seeped between Shadowmaru's digits.

Shadowmaru winced as he moved his servo to reveal a decent sized bullet hole underneath it. "You were right, it was Dr. Madoh, and he had his assistant with him. I followed them down here but the little weasel got in a few lucky shots and got my wing,"

He pushed off the pillar he was leaning against and jogged stiffly towards another exit ramp. "Come on, they went this way,"

Deckard followed the hobbling mech and the two of them found themselves on the side of the same street they had just came off of, only a few blocks down.

They scanned all of the vehicles they could see but the blue car that Dr. Madoh had been driving was not among them.

Deckard sighed "They're gone, and the traffic jam they just caused is too thick for us to follow them in vehicle mode,"

Shadowmaru swayed on his peds but stubbornly stayed upright. "I'd try to track them from the air but like I said they hit my wing. Maybe I can track them in my wolf mode…"

He grit his denta as he initiated the transformation sequence but he couldn't stop a very canine-sounding whine from escaping his vocalizer as the change aggravated his injury.

Deckard shook his helm as the giant metal purple wolf tried to limp away from him. "The only place you are going is back to the precinct to get that shoulder repaired,"

Shadowmaru sat back on his haunches and looked at Deckard with wide red optics. "But…"

Deckard shook his helm "No buts, no matter which form you take by the time we get through this traffic jam they will be long gone and you need repairs,"

Shadowmaru growled "I've dealt with worse,"

Deckard just sighed and lifted the wolf-mech onto his shoulders and Shadowmaru struggled "Whoa hey, what are you doing?"

Deckard walked back through the parking garage and back out the way they had come in. "Bringing you back to the precinct,"

Shadowmaru slumped. "Can't I just walk? It's really not that bad… and I look like you _hunted _me!"

Deckard shook his helm, trying not to think about how awkward they actually looked and took a moment to be thankful that the precinct wasn't that far. Then he realized something disturbing. "This place isn't far from the precinct,"

Shadowmaru looked around and saw that they were in the parking lot he had asked Artemis to meet him in, two intersections away from the precinct. "No, it isn't. Why would they risk coming this close to the precinct if they knew we were after them?"

Deckard started to say something but Shadowmaru cut him off. "Don't give me that look, they knew damn well we were after them. The gun that the assistant used fired armor-piercing rounds and they had it all ready to go in the car with them. Why have a weapon fully loaded and at the ready if you don't plan on using it?"

Deckard thought for a moment and hummed to himself. "Hmm, you have a point there," he crossed the street so they were on side of the street they should be on. "Better tell the others about this, if the scientists are going to be waiting for us when we do catch up to them we'll need to be ready,"

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><p><em><strong>A.N.: Quick shout out to the people that reviewed andor added; Ironhide's Girl 103.**_


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